


Shattered Dimensions

by rebthewriter



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Beast Wars
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beast Wars in an alternative modern time, Blood, Blood and Gore, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Everyone Needs A Hug, Humor, Kidnapping, Megatron fucks up everything, Not a Crossover, Original Character(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Science Fiction, Tarantulas needs to stay away from everyone with a ten foot pole, The Maximals and Humans need a break, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-27 04:57:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13873626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebthewriter/pseuds/rebthewriter
Summary: In the wake of chasing after each other for their own goals, the Maximals find themselves on an alternative earth. How will the Maximals adjust to this world and battle the Predacons? Will they be able to save the world from the Predacons? Only time will tell!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Beast Wars is not owned by me. Nor is Jack, Sierra, and Vince as they all belong to Hasbro. This isn't a crossover by the way just a new universe I made for this retelling of Beast Wars. Enjoy the ride :)

The moonlight night stood in the sky. Thin clouds, slowly moving in the sky. It had been dusk on the crisp, fall evening. The night could've been fitting the tall dark buildings quiet tone if it wasn't for someone running around the dark rooftop. A guy, dressed in all black, following a girl dress in a green hooded uniform. A crossbow, in hand before firing off the arrows that were loaded into them. The man, dodging them instantly, carrying a bag in his right hand before jumping over to the nearby rooftop. The woman, quickly following.

The man flipped his gun and fired it at the woman who had fired her crossbow once again at the same time, canceling out the attack instantly. The girl barely made it onto the roof while the man had already been nearly at the end of the other roof until…

An incoming flying chakram causes him to jump back, noticing someone standing on the taller rooftop, but the shadow didn't show any colors of her outfit only that she was in similar get up than the girl dressed in green. There was another red and silver chakram in her hand and it was glowing with fire around it, revealing the colors of red and yellow streaming on her outfit. A hood had been hiding her face and sunglasses, hiding her eyes as well.

"The Red Aura!" The man exclaimed. His hazel eyes, widening in surprise at her as the woman, Aura, jumped in front of him.

"Apologies for the late arrival, Lunar. I got caught up in some traffic." The chakram, in front of the man, quickly lifting from the ground to Aura's gloved hand that wasn't holding the other chakram that was still in her hands. She quickly lit it on fire, causing the man to back away, "Why don't you answer yourself, asshole?" Aura snapped, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses. It was getting late and she still needed to finish at least some of her History project before daylight hits. She rather not is chasing some random thug that thought he could smuggle stuff from someone.

Silence enveloped the room as if someone could drop a pen and anyone could hear it. These damn people were all the same, and Aura's patience was wearing thin quite a bit before the guy immediately dropped the stuff he stole before jumping away from the nearby roof.

Just then, the two other fellow hooded figures jumped down. One in blue and silver; the other, in pink and white. Both had the same hoods and glasses hiding their facial looks.

"Well, looks like that job was a little easier than I expected." The pink and white hooded girl sighed, shrugging her shoulders, dismissing the white lances around her in the pouch on her back. She had been controlling them earlier with the wind.

"I wouldn't call it that, Wind Stormer. We still have the police and media on our tail." Aura sighs, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses. That is what happens when people think they're robbing you of a chance of nabbing what they deserve. Anyone had the right to fight against anything they see fit so long as they weren't doing it for horrible reasons and these people they fought every night didn't have any right stealing, pillaging, hurting any of the other members of the city that weren't really a good thing to do to innocent people.

"Eh, we'll live." Lunar sighed, crossing her arms over her chest, shrugging her shoulders, "We've been doing this for almost a year now and all they've done is basically only complained."

"That's basic capitalism though, Archer." The blue one added, sighing, rolling her eyes, "At least, that's what Blake tells me it is the reason for every time he comes home hearing about us on the news or something." Her brother was in the military and had just left back yesterday after staying over for a couple of weeks.

Aura found herself nearly choking back a laugh before sighing, "Let's call it a night then."

XXXX

Study hall. What an absolutely boring class period, but at least she was able to get that damn report done. Might've taken her until two in the morning but she did it. Brown, curly hair dangled on shoulders. A strand of caramel brown hair in her tan skin fingertips. The highlights of lighter brown hair on her head, sitting in the desk. Her spiral notebook, being doodled around. She was in the corner front, but it still didn't stop her from checking her cell phone to see if she had any messages.

There had been one from Rose.

Did you hear the rumors, Rachel? Apparently, a ship crashed out in the woods by our neighborhood and sighting of dinosaurs. Do you wanna check it out tonight?

Rachel sighed, wondering if anything could get any weirder than that and quickly typed out her response.

This is as good as a rumor, right? I could've sworn I heard a few people in study hall talking about it earlier. I guess it is, but dinosaurs, really? Sounds too far fetched to me.

"You think you saw some kind of cheetah out last night? Are you crazy, Jack?"

"Not crazy! Just um…" The black raven headed boy sitting a few desks behind from Rachel sighed, "Look, I know what I saw. It sounds crazy, but I could've sworn. Maybe one got loose from the zoo?"

Sierra had been sitting next to him. Odd that a lead cheerleader like her would be talking to a loner like Jack but hey, it gave her an opportunity to ask some questions without coming off as super suspicious. The last thing she wanted people to know that she was the Red Aura.

"Zoo? Doesn't the city not have those kinds of things in that zoo?" Rachel asked, turning to rest her elbow on the desk behind her.

"Look, I don't know Rachel, but I'm sure what I saw, but did you hear about the dinosaurs that were spotted last night?" Jack asked in curiosity as Rachel nodded.

"Yes, I heard from Rose about it." Knowing Rose's name was only gonna jump Sierra out of her seat. Those two had quite the falling out when Rose quit cheering to join her small group of friends on their after-school activities, "But there's nothing really confirming the rumor. It's probably a bunch of far-fetched rumors that people are making up just to use a scare tactic. I bet Vince did all of that. He's always picking fights with people." He'd been the very definition of a fuckboy. He'd been asking Sierra out for the last six months and wouldn't take no for an answer. Least Rachel didn't bask in that stupid sense of dances. Not that she wasn't really social just that she prefers to avoid any unnecessary drama.

"You couldn't be blaming him without any proof, Rachel." Sierra rolled her eyes as Rachel turned back to her desk. The look of seeing someone that quick to defend someone like Vince nearly made her gag.

"Yeah, well, he's done plenty of shady stuff to fly that rumor around." Rachel waved her hand before deciding to ignore Sierra for the time being and just talk to Jack about this whole ordeal, "So Jack, what did they say they found these sightings? Outside the zoo?"

"You can't be thinking about checking that area out, can you?" Jack blinked in surprise while Rachel rolled her eyes.

"I didn't think about it, but I'm curious, Jack." Rachel sighed. People these days think she's that crazy enough to go alone. Not that it would be her investigating it anyway.

"Yeah, it was outside Taios. Wonder if those so-called superheroes are gonna end up showing up? That's a big thing." Jack wondered and the bell rang causing Rachel to shrug, getting up from her seat. It had been last hour and definitely grateful for it. She, Rose, and the others can figure out just what the hell is going on. Well, if it wasn't a joke, that is.

"Who knows, maybe they'll do what they usually do and hide in the shadows." And with that said, Rachel walked out of the classroom immediately, into the halls of the school, heading over to where she had driven her mom's other car she gave her a while back when her mom got a new one, spotting her sister Lilly walking to the gym.

"Hey, Lilly, you got a ride back from Volleyball practice today? Is Delia taking you home?" Rachel asked as Lilly nodded.

"Oh yeah, sis don't worry about it. Don't you got some study date with Sophia, Scarlet, and Rose tonight?" Lilly asked as Rachel nodded, always using the study date as an excuse and mom wasn't due to be home for a couple more days since she was on a business trip. Nothing would go wrong. At least, that's what Rachel hoped. Not that her mom didn't know what she was doing but her sister didn't.

"Yeah, just be careful. There's been some crazy stuff going on in the city lately." Rachel sighed, smiling at her sister before walking away, "Give me a text when you're heading home, okay?"

Rachel waved to her sister before heading to the doors before she could hear Lilly shout.

"Hey, you know I can handle myself."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Rachel headed over to the black cobalt that she's usually driving, unlocking it before starting the car up, throwing her bags into the front seat before two others had gotten into her car as well.

"Hey, Rachel." The raven-haired girl from the passenger side declared with a wave, quickly yawning, "Rose told us to ride with you. She's gotta get some stuff from her house real quick and she'll be at your house."

"Wonderful, Scarlet." Sweatdropped on Rachel's forehead. Well, the sooner they find out this shit is a hoax, the sooner they could get on their lives.

"Heh, you don't seem to like your too excited." The blond pigtail girl laughed as Rachel started driving, stopping to turn right to head over to her house.

"Sophia, I hope this is all a joke like I think it is." She sighs, not wanting to deal with any more people like this. Some jokes she was just sick and tired of and frankly if there are real, what then? They really didn't have a plan or anything. They didn't know what to expect.

XXXX

"You shouldn't of let yourself be seen by these humans, Cheetor."

Optimus Primal's voice broke the halls, stepping out of the shadows of the Axalon, in a gorilla form. It was a beast mode. It was made to protect themselves from the Energon fields and keep them safe from their circuits being fried. Where were they at? What time? What year? What area had they been in?

It was confusing for them. They didn't even know if they had crashed landed on the planet where Megatron had come here for. All things would happen in time for him to find out. He wasn't impatient, just curious.

The cheetah, Cheetor, sighed, "Ah-Ah, Big bot. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

A rhinoceros emerged from the background.

"It's no worries, we're just can't come out openly yet." The mech, Rhinox, stated to Cheetor. There are so many things they didn't know about this planet. There was definitely humans, but what time exactly could they have been in? The transwarp system could've taken them into an entirely different dimension, anyplace, and anytime.

"I know what you mean, Optimus," replied Cheetor, "Especially since we crash-landed on this planet at night and got those beast modes from that 'zoo.' Oh man, did we cause a near-panic in the night last night when those two-legged things saw our ship!" Well, least they weren't harmful.

"Yes, and who knows the chaos that could've been caused if more had seen us." Optimus retorted with a small nod, "It's fortunate that the Axalon has a cloaking device as well as being able to go underwater if we have to get to that point."

"What about our comrades, Optimus? What happened to them?" Cheetor asked, actually worried about some of them and what could happen to them.

"The stasis pods were scattered across the planet after our battle with Megatron and his Predacons. They could be anywhere on the planet. We won't be able to find any of them until they give out some sort of distress signal." Optimus explained. It was unfortunate, and it meant Predacons had them outnumbered.

"Dat means the Preds have us outnumbered." A rat emerged from another room, chewing on something.

"Rattrap, what is that in your hands?" Optimus demanded, smelling something that made him a bit uncomfortable.

"Oh? Umm, this? Oh, I heard those two-legged creatures call it pizza or something." Rattrap continued to chew on it, despite it smelling disgusting to the other Maximals. It would've smelled bad to the humans as well. Rattrap took the silence as an insert that they had no interest in his new finding and ate the pizza down quickly.

"Unfortunately, they do, but that doesn't mean we're out of this battle. If Megatron finds out that weren't in the Cybertron space anymore then we will have a bit more of a problem if the creatures of this planet get involved." And whatever resources these two-legged creatures had.

"Well, he'll probably find out knowing our luck." Rattrap sighed, "We're all gonna die."

XXXX

"You're a fool, Terrorsaur!" Megatron hollered, using his t-rex head to grab the head of the pterodactyl's head, slamming it into the wall of his ship. He wasn't too happy that he let those flesh creatures see him.

"M-My apologies, Megatron." The red pterodactyl cried out, not wanting to face Megatron's wrath today. He surely didn't want to die either. That much was for certain.

Megatron quickly flashed a piece of the newspaper he had found on his late hidden exploration of this planet, "You see, I could let you explore this planet more. If these vile humans plaguing not just the area, but this planet as well." He turned to look at pages that said 'Local Mysterious Powered Hooded Girls Continue to Do the Officials' job.' These so-called officials must not be good if the girls took out a whole group of thugs as the newspaper pointed out. Powered? It was pretty vague to Megatron's likes but it had been certainly interesting. Could these so-called fleshlings be using something else to help them take these so-called thugs? He read the article more. It peaked his interest.

Local Police say that the men were taken care of when they arrived. There was also a glimpse of fire at the scene signifying that these mysterious human girls that have been taking out these people that terrorize the city had been there. The Red Aura seems like the case of that. On top of that, witnesses saw that there had been several gunshots fired along with some arrows being stuck on top of the rooftop. Officials say that they will become much faster than these hooded kids in the future.

Kids? Doing this? These officials don't seem smart, no. Megatron thought to himself, crumbling the piece of paper. He was still curious. However, he had bigger matters to deal with.

Just then, there had been a velociraptor hissing at what Megatron had been reading previously, "Pathetic, you think we have been to the right planet. This isn't the earth that we were supposed to land on. You've failed Megatron!" He didn't even destroy their opponents before their crash landing.

What a terrible leader.

"Failed?" Megatron was quite irritated with the way his men addressed him. Dinobot's comment made his mech fluid boil as he looked at the velociraptor, "I think not! This is a new planet we have landed on, yes, but has that stalled my plans in the slightest, Dinobot? No." He stated with a firm stance, standing his ground. He would get his chance of eliminating those pesky Maximals in time. He just had to be patient.

"Dinobot, terrorize!" Dinobot immediately transformed into his robot mode, "What I understand is that you have made us get to the wrong planet. Therefore, you are an excuse for a leader. I shall be leading the Predacons from now on." He stated, pulling out his trusty sword.

"Ah, so you think." Megatron chuckled, "For one to become a leader, there are certain qualities you must have. There's giving out a proper strategy, charms, strength. All of which I accel you in, Dinobot, yes."

"Then you should accept my challenge to battle you for the leadership. Whoever wins, will be destroyed." Dinobot stated while Megatron laughed.

"Such anties I don't simply prefer to handle." Megatron started to walk away from Dinobot while a scorpion-like a robot emerged, aiming his missiles at Dinobot before firing it at him, flinging him out of range. Noticing this, Megatron tsked, "Oh how I would hate to blow cover, but this seems like I will have to let it slide this one time. Dinobot's treachery is certainly something that should be handled, yes. It is getting close tonight after all." He turned over to Terrorsaur, "Terrorsaur, you wanted some action, and you shall get it, yes. You and Waspinator will hunt down the traitor to make sure he's destroyed, yesss."

Terrorsaur grinned, "Heh, not a problem, Megatron. I could use some target practice."

"Waspinator will enjoy getting rid of Lizard-bot too." The wasp, Waspinator, now flew beside Terrorsaur.

"Excellent, oh and if you do see humans, feel free to destroy them. I'd prefer no witnesses on this battlefield." Megatron couldn't take any humans getting suspicious just yet. Not when he didn't know what these flesh creatures had. There could be humans like those mysterious human girls from the newspaper who took some heroine names.

Oh, the very mention of heroine made him gag.

XXXX

"So, this is where the sightings have been?"

The four girls were all in the alter ego forms, looking around at the wooded forest, noticing some footprints that were definitely not human.

"Looks like this is totally not a hoax."

They were looking down as Aura shrugged her shoulders, rolling her eyes behind her glasses, crossing her arms over her chest, "Damn, you guys really think that this is real? Already convinced? Hardly, someone could've carved that for all you know." Dinosaurs have been nonexistent for the last like millions of years now according to science. How could this even be happening? Stormer had been way smarter than this.

"Well, it looks pretty real to me." Sprite sighed, shrugging her shoulders, having the same voice as her friend Sophia.

"Real? How could we even tell if someone's that good at planting evidence? Call me paranoid, but dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct. Not alive." Aura sighed, finding herself getting a headache over this. Stormer was supposed to be the brains of this group. Don't tell her she was believing this stuff to?

"You know, Aura's got a point." Stormer piped in, "We haven't seen any crazy activity since we've started investigating this area. This could just be some dumb joke." As much as crazy this was, it was probably some people their age trying to do something like this.

"Eh, but this does kind of look real, you know." Sprite sighed, shrugging her shoulders before something hit her. Paranoia, mostly, "Hey, what if the officials are trying to send a trap or something?"

"Doubt that this isn't their style." Stormer pointed out with a sigh, shrugging. The police and media might be corrupted these days but they weren't stupid, that's for sure.

"Guys," Archer said, holding her flashlight over at something she never expected. It was a blue robot and it looked like he had gotten shot in the chest, "I found something! This is really getting weird." She's never seen anything like this before. She slowly started walking towards the blue robot closer and she stopped, seeing just how big it was, "Whoa." Her heart was pounding. What if it just woke up and did some kind of weird function. She could tell it was armed. This could be some war robot or something. It could kill them. It could hurt them. It didn't look like it was conscious though. It looked like it had been here a while too.

The other three alter egos came running over to the scene, gasping. If anyone could see their eyes from their glasses, it would show they were shocked.

"Holy shit." Aura breathed. Her breath was caught in her throat, wanting to scream out, but couldn't. It shocked her, scar her. This was true?

"We should see if we could deactivate it." Sprite sighed, kneeling next to the robot's head. They all didn't know how to operate it, but they would have to find something about it.

Then, the robot moved. His eyes, opening to show that they were red, causing all four girls to jump back in case the robot tried to attack them in any way possible.

"What is this? Where am I?" The robot stood to his feet before feeling a sudden surge of energon coursing through him, and it wasn't pretty, "Gah, I've been in robot mode too long: Beast mode!" He transformed into a velclopier raptor, causing the girls' anxiety to surge even more.

"What the hell?" Sprite muttered, looking at the raptor, "It-It's a dinosaur." She couldn't believe it. Dinosaurs were supposed to be extinct, not existing.

It seemed it made sense now. Stormer realized that these dinosaurs had actually been something more than just some robot made by the government. It was something more…

They should get out of here while they can.

"Everyone stay back!" She exclaimed, getting ready to get out of here. Who knows what that thing could do, but what did it mean by going into robot mode too long? What was this guy?

This time, the robot noticed the humans, "Pah! Humans!" He exclaimed, looking at them. These are humans, huh? They looked like the humans from the newspaper Megatron was looking at earlier. Not that he really cared anyway. He found no interest in fighting these humans, but they looked on edge. They obviously have never seen a transformer before.

His eyes widened before suddenly hearing a buzzing noise. No, that was Waspinator. He didn't have a chance to do anything when his body was still trying to recover from the energon surge he just had.

It looks like these humans were about to get caught in the crossfire.

Aura blinked behind her sunglasses and froze up for a second before sighing, waving her hand, before turning into the other direction, "Come on, we don't have time to..." Buzzing appeared around the area, loud and whole. Oh, fuck her life. She still had some homework to do tonight.

"Okay, that's too loud for it to be a small bug." Sprite pulled out her blue triton, eyes, wary of the area. This was crazy.

"Okay, I'm not the only one who heard that." A sigh escaped Archer's lips, pulling out her crossbow. This was gonna get worse it seems and it seemed she and Sprite were right. Stormer and Aura really should've listened to them.

"This is really starting to freak me out," Sprite muttered, pulling out her triton. Where the fuck was it coming from?

"You'd be best to run if I were you." the robot finally spoke to the four humans, "The Predacons won't be sparing you if they see you around with me." He knew he technically betrayed the Predacon cause and he had been a fool to just challenge Megatron in front of his other Predacons. Not that he would ever admit such a thing. It would be lacking in honor. These fleshlings were stupid in trying to think they have a chance against them. They had no idea what they were getting into.

He decided to yell this time around, hoping to scare them away. Not that he liked them, it was just that he found it dishonorable to just kill these fleshlings, "If you fleshlings want to live, you'll run and forget any of this happen!"

"Lookey what we have here, Waspinator."

Slag, Terrorsaur too? Dinobot knew that he had been around too. He was stuck in Beast Mode for a bit. He didn't have the patience nor the power to deal with this. They had a flight advantage, and Dinobot was stuck in Beast Mode. That, however, didn't mean that he was about to give up.

"Oooo, not only just Lizard bot but fleshy bots too." Waspinator stated happily, wanting target practice very badly, "Waspitator needs target practice."

"Terrorsaur, TERRORIZE!"

"Waspinator, TERRORIZE!"

Both the dinosaur and the insect immediately shifted the bodies internally and transformed into two menacing robots.

"Fuck, now I've seen everything." Aura sighed before realizing there were bullets heading their way, "Move!"

She quickly put up her chakrams using her telekinesis, trying to stop their attack while Stormer tried using her lancers with her control of the wind. It wasn't going to work however as the raptor had deflected them with his tail, sending it back to the two robots.

"Whoa." The Red Aura breathed, getting herself behind a rock along with her other three friends. This was crazy. That guy was amazing. Well, at least they knew they weren't gonna die if he's around.

"He's taken heavy damage before, Aura. We should help him." Sprite stated, trying to point her triton at the two robots that were trying to kill them.

"Are you crazy? They would've blown up our weapons for certain if that guy hadn't taken out those attacks just now." Stormer stated before she noticed Spirte heading to fire her electric pulse in her triton, "Water Sprite are you dumb?! Did you hear a word I said?!"

She was irritated. She was going to get herself killed, "Damn it all, she is crazy." Stormer immediately decided she was going to have to help Sprite out before she took to the skies, flying it the air, using two of her five lancers to aim to stab the wasp-like robot.

Sprite's electric pulse was avoided by Terrorsaur while he laughed, aiming his blaster at the blue human before he suddenly saw an arrow being sent his way. He deflected it with ease. These fleshlings were nothing to him. He saw the green one had used his crossbow but he had also realized those other two had some weird powers who had tried to block his attack.

Dinobot thought that these humans were stupid. Did they not hear him earlier? He didn't have the strength to fight now, but he wasn't about to lose to the likes of Terrorsaur and Waspinator of all people.

Suddenly, a sudden blast knocked Terrorsaur off of his course and sent him to the ground. His head, implanting the ground as Waspinator dodged the lancers that were sent to him before looking over at the sudden newcomers that were the Maximals. One was a cheetah. The other, a rat.

"The Maximals!" Dinobot exclaimed before he found himself groaning, feeling a shot suddenly hit him from Terrorsaur, knocking him to the ground.

"Oh no!" Aura exclaimed before suddenly noticing a metallic blue and silver like robot stopping her. She glanced over at him and he spoke to her.

"No need to interfere further. We'll take care of this, I assure you." He stated to her, trying to send a small smile at her, trying to ease her anxiety a bit. That had been a Predacon if he remembered correctly and it seemed he was battling them seconds ago with the help of these humans.

He quickly fired at Waspinator and Terrorsaur along with Rhinox.

Aura was in awe of these robots. They were helping them out even though they didn't know them. And their power was incredible.

"Ah, let's retreat!" Terrorsaur exclaimed before he quickly flew away with Waspinator, trying to dodge all the bullets along with him.

When they had returned, Optimus looked over the four humans before he tended to the Predacon, looking over at him. He was unconscious once again.

"He took a bad hit before." Aura stated to the gorilla looking robot as he nodded, agreeing that he had noticed that as well.

"He helped the four of you out, didn't he?" He asked as the four girls nodded, "Ah, my apologies to you humans. I haven't introduced myself yet, I'm Optimus Primal, leader of the Axalon crew. We're new to your planet and just know that you're not used to seeing being like us, but we Maximals don't mean no harm to you or this planet." He stated, hoping these humans would get comfortable with them fairly quickly.

"I don't think you would have a reason to harm us after what you just did." Sprite sighed, breathing relief into her chest. Thank goodness all these robots weren't all bad, "We appreciate your help, Optimus. To be honest, we came out here to investigate some weird events. We didn't think we'd find something more than meets the eye."

Something didn't add up to Stormer quite yet though…

"So, if you're aliens then why are you able to speak our own language?" Stormer asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Our sensors adapt whenever we encounter beings capable of basic sentence structures," Rhinox added. "Simplest way to put it."

"That's pretty clever." Stormer pointed out, nodding in understanding. Interesting.

"Think it's wise for both of us to explain our situations in another area." Aura advised, clearly not wanting to deal with some police brutality or much less, the press. People probably called the cops from all the racket they all had been making.

Sure enough, they had heard sirens.

"Yes, I agree." Optimus nodded, motioning the four of them to follow him and his crew. He hadn't wanted to leave the Predacon destroyed.

"You mean, we're gonna help that Predacon?" Rattrap asked before he sighed. They're all gonna die.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's meetings and hell brewing.

"Hmm, so let me get this straight," Aura began, "You and your crew ended up in our galaxy from pursuing these criminals called the Predacons and right now, your ship is hidden from plain view, right?"

The four were now in the Axalon along with the Maximals. The Predacon that they found had been in a thing called the CR chamber. It was supposed to be some kind of healing room.

"That's the whole story," Cheetor explained, "All we want to do is make sure these Predacons don't conquer this world since they've already landed here."

 

"It's… a lot to take in," confessed Archer, “Especially for four girls who led a double life.” They all had a lot of shit to deal with now. They’re gonna get caught in this crazy war and on top of that, they had enough on their plate as it was.

 

"I realize that," said Optimus soothingly, "All we ask is that you trust us and not fear us."  
These girls were far too young to be doing this kind of stuff. Which reminded him…The power he saw earlier from them…

“We do trust you. You guys did save us, after all.” Stormer added, nodding. If it wasn’t for them, they would probably be dead.

“By the way, there’s something I would like to ask you four,” Optimus began, deciding it was best to take his curiosity to the girls, “Why do you humans have powers? The information of what I know about humans says that they don’t have any powers of what you had.” He hoped they knew something about it, especially since they were the ones that had it.

“Well, according to what Aura’s mother said, a couple of decades ago, there was this crazy incident where people from all over the world started getting abilities. Aura’s Mom was the one who taught us to keep our powers at bay. For a while, people kept them a secret.” Stormer sighed at the next words, feeling a chill going down her spine, “Then, there were people who started abusing it. People look down on the people who have powers when they start showing signs of it.”

“There's also a lot of shit going on right on with the US government with how to handle people like us." Aura explained with a small yawn, "Some people that don't have powers are scared of us. Treat us like a whole different race. Like were some kind of ailens or something." Regardless, that had been the reason why they wanted to do all of this.

“We wanted this, we wanted to help people,” Archer explained, shrugging. She simply wanted to be someone. All four of them had their reasonings on becoming what they were now, “We wanted to show the people that are still getting oppressed in the world for having these abilities that there’s a way to make people look up to you even when others see you as a monster.” It was true, all four of their powers started to form at a young age. It was the reason it brought them together as friends.

“I was already a minority from the get-go,” Stormer explained. She came from the south as her family wanted to get out of there as soon as they can. Some US billionaire decided it was wise to start drilling into resources her family used so she and her family had to leave there. She didn’t want some kind of pity though. And she was sure Rachel didn’t want that either. 

That had been five years ago. 

“Look, we’re getting off topic now.” Stormer sighed, “We should tell you our real names. My name is Rose but I’m also the Wind Stormer in this alter ego I am in. I’m also seventeen years old. My powers are wind attributed.” She stated.

“Oh? My turn then.” Sprite smiled brightly, straightening herself out, “I’m the Water Sprite as my alter ego. My real name though is Sophia Sullivan. I use water abilities and I use a triton as my weapon.”

Archer found herself feeling a bit nervous before sighing, “My name’s the Lunar Archer as my alter ego. My real name is Scarlet Johnson.” She really didn’t like all these people staring at her, “I’m Sophia’s age: sixteen! I use earth-based powers on top of using a crossbow as my weapon!” She declared before glancing at Aura who sighed.

“My alter ego’s name is the Red Aura. My real name is Rachel Summers. I’m seventeen years old and I use fire and telekinesis. I use chakrams as my weapon.” She stated to the Maximals as Optimus sighed.

“I don’t really like this whole in disguise ordeal with the four of you.” They were just children after all. They shouldn’t have all this worry about them, “However, I’m glad you also have them at the same time. Thanks to your egos, you’re able to keep your regular identities a secret. It’s good to have, especially with the Predacons being aware of your existence now. It’s best to keep that going. If Megatron figures out who all of you are, then he’ll go after your family members too and use them against you.” Optimus still didn’t like this but he was pretty sure they weren’t going to back down from their dangerous situation. 

“We’re aware,” Rachel shrugged her shoulders. It’s why they had their egos, to begin with. Not getting other people involved was a good idea. Especially when Lilly had no abilities and Scarlet’s family didn’t either.

“So Optimus, what are we gonna do when old Chopperface comes out of that chamber?!” Rattrap pointed a finger at the CR chamber, “Don’t tell me that you’re gonna suddenly trust him.”

“We trust him,” Archer stated, crossing her arms over her chest. He did save them after all. They owed him one.

“Kid, you’re crazy.” Rattrap rolled his eyes at the brunette. They had no idea what the Predacons were capable of, “Once a Pred, always a Pred.” 

“Shut up, Rattrap.” Optimus sighed, putting a servo on his forehead. Just as he thought; he knew the others weren’t going to be too happy about this but considering Megatron had his fliers attack him earlier that he probably wasn’t going to live if they just kept him like that. 

“We should’ve let the Preds scrap em.” Rattrap bawled a small fist of his in robot mode and lifted it upwards, “He’s not gonna be too happy when he wakes up, Boss Monkey.”

“I’m aware of that, but we’ll have to try to settle this peacefully. There really isn’t a way for him to try to force a fight.” Optimus knew the Predacon wouldn’t be able to really try to force a fight here. He wouldn’t be in the way of them at all. There was a way to settle this it only depended on how the Predacon reacted. Optimus would rather not deal with a fight unless there was no other choice.

“You really can’t say that someone can’t change anyway.” Stormer put a hand on her own hip, resting it before sighing. Such is the world of being horrible sometimes. Rattrap might’ve had a reason to feel like this though.

“I agree with Rose.” Optimus nodded at her comment. He would worry about dealing with the Predacon when he comes out of the CR chamber. 

Suddenly, the roar of the CR chamber opening echoed within all the individuals on the Axalon. The door slowly rose upwards and the Maximals and humans found themselves staring at the Predacon.

“What...happened?” Dinobot groaned, holding his head in pain. Such a pain that the CR chamber couldn’t help the pain building into his head. His sight was turning to see the Maximals and the humans from before here. 

Idiots, why did they bring them here?

He roared at the group before the four humans backed away from him. Stormer sighed, she was hoping he didn’t freak out when he awoke…

“Calm yourself.” Optimus Primal took a step forward, resting his left arm to motion his fellow Maximals to not do anything at all. He was still trying to settle this peaceful and he would, “You were heavily damaged when you were found when we countered Terrorsaur and Waspinator.” 

Dinobot stopped his offensive position the moment Optimus Primal started talking. Yes, he remembered that. He remembered the humans finding him out in the woods and they had tried to fight when he had told them to run. Were they idiots? They didn’t even back down when he tried to threaten them. 

Still, was Optimus Primal a fool? Then again, who is to say that Megatron might not try to hunt these four children down? However, one thing remained in Dinobot as a flaw…

“Optimus Primal, why did you help a Predacon?” Dinobot demanded. If it had been different options, all of them would have been destroyed. They could’ve had someone in here that could’ve infiltrated the base and the Predacons could’ve attack. How naive was he/

“I helped you because according to these humans,” He gestured at the girls who nodded, “you were trying to help them get away from the Predacons according to them and Terrorsaur and Waspinator were attacking you. I don’t know what happened between you and Megatron, but you would’ve been scrapped if it wasn’t for us helping you out. You don’t really have anywhere to go.” Optimus was proposing an alliance, at least maybe have him join the Maximals in the future, but for now, an alliance would be the best way to handle this.

“Perhaps you’re correct.” Dinobot sighed, finding himself believing that Optimus made a valid point, “But why bring the humans? They have no involvement.”

“Unfortunately, they do. Terrorsaur and Waspinator saw that. They apparently have abilities that were dropped on this planet a long time ago. If Megatron finds that out and they have no protection or ability to call for backup, they will be hunted down.” He looked over at the four of them who had immediately relaxed after noticing that Dinobot had dropped his offensive guard, “That’s why we’re helping them. I can’t say what they’re doing is a good thing, especially for children at this age, but they believe they’re doing what is right. I can’t stop them.” He sighed. Not to mention if they had been doing it for a year, that meant that they weren’t going to just give it up yet. 

“Hmm, you’re right. Megatron will get interested if he finds out humans around here carry abilities like theirs.” He looked over at the humans before he sighed, “Perhaps then we can establish a truce, for now, Optimus Primal.” He could try to vouch that he would want to challenge Optimus for leadership, “Or you could battle me for the leadership of the Maximals.”

“Oh no way, Chopper face!” Rattrap rolled his optics, walking over to stare upwards at the raptor, pointing his hands at him, “You’re not even going to try something like that!” 

“I’ll decline.” Optimus stated, narrowing his eyes slightly, “I don’t really want to fight you, Dinobot, but your first option can stand. You’re welcome to join us but you won’t lead.” He crossed his arms over his chest with a firm nod. 

“I see…” Dinobot was hoping to get an honorable fight.

Just then, Rachel’s phone went off. She went to check it to see that it was a text from her sister.

Where are you? It’s getting late. We have class tomorrow.

Rachel sighs, immediately texting her sister back, removing her red gloves with yellow stripes at the beginning of each glove.

At Rose’s, trying to study for that Psychology test we have on Monday.

She immediately shut her phone and threw it in her pocket, “Okay, so I think we should head out, but I appreciate the answers. It’s good to know that these rumors were true and that we were able to find something good out of it in the process.”

Optimus noticed that her device had gone off, causing his eyebrows to raise in confusion, “What was that?”

“A phone, I have a sister. She was asking me where I was. She doesn’t know about all of this.” She sighs. Probably gonna hear a lecture when she gets home about staying out too late on a school night from her sister who was Sophia’s and Scarlet’s age. She hated lying to her, but it was for good reasons. She didn’t want her sister to get involved in all of this, especially now with some people like Megatron and the Predacons. She made a mental note that they should all avoid Megatron at any cost for their own good, “She’s already worried about me. Imagine if I actually told her. She’d totally freak out.”

For good reasons. Optimus couldn’t help but think to himself. They were all putting themselves in massive danger after all. Especially them getting mixed up in all of this, but that wasn’t their faults. 

He should consider having them have some kind of comlinks. He spoke up, “Wait for a nanoclick,” He said, “You four should take some communication in case you need us.” He looked over at Rhinox who nodded pulling out some communicators for the four of them, “In case of an emergency or anything, you are to call us if you need any help. I respect you four are trying to protect your city, but with the Predacons being around, I’m afraid I can’t help but worry about your safety.”

“We get that.” Sprite sighed. He sounded like Rachel’s mother... she said the same thing when they started this battle.

“Yeah, I think that’s wise.” Stormer nodded, putting a hand on her chin, “We don’t know what these Predacons are capable of aside the other two. I have a concern if we have any run-ins with this Megatron guy. Who knows if this guy is gonna try something with not even our city, but the entire planet.”

“I’d recommend you all to run immediately,” Dinobot told the humans, obviously not liking their involvement with this war. They were just kids, they were not able to be fitted for the battlefield, “Megatron makes those fliers look like their insects.” 

“I mean, one of them was an insect…” Sophia couldn’t help but point out before Dinobot shook his head.

“You know what I meant, human.” Dinobot rolled his eyes before turning to walk away from them. 

“Well, I hope we see you again.” Cheetor grinned. Being the youngest of the crew, he was certainly happy to try to be friends with these girls. 

“I got a feeling we probably will.” Sophia turned over to him and smiled. She thought that being in a war would be pretty scary, but hey, these people were nice. Just the whole trying not to die in this war was really scary. And the Predacons that they couldn’t do anything to.

XXXX

“So, Rachel,” Jack began, tapping her on the shoulder. No response. He tapped on her shoulder again, noticing she had headphones. 

They were in study hall again. The class that Rachel had usually slacked off doing her assignments in mostly. She was actually doing some homework this time it looked like though. She took her headphones off to look at him and yawned.

“Whatcha need, Jack?” She asked. 

Jack noticed she had looked really tired. She was always tired. Did she ever sleep? 

“Oh? I wanted to talk to you about something, but if you’re doing homework…” Jack began before Rachel cut him off. 

“Don’t worry about it. I was going to take a break anyways.” A sigh escaped her lips, tugging her brown, curly hair behind her left ear. She leaned her arms onto the empty desk between the two of their own. She was tired of Chemistry anyways, “Whatcha need?”

“Ah, you see the newspaper today?” Jack asked, wondering if Rachel even read newspapers. He only heard it this morning from his mom. He was certain it was on the news as well so it was easy to look it up on the internet too. He was scrolling through his phone for the article, trying to find it.

“Newspaper? No, I’m afraid not.” Her mom was gonna blow a fuse if she found out they were involved in yesterday’s incident. 

“Yeah, those sightings were true. Look.” He showed his phone to Rachel. Rachel took a look at it. The title was Local Sightings of Weird Creatures Involved with Local ‘Heronines’.

Oh for fuck’s sake…

Rachel had to swallow the anger that was bellowing in her throat. God damn media. How the hell did they even know they were there? 

“Looks like they assumed from the craters that it was the Heroines.” Rachel wasn’t about to have her and the others’ reputation ruined. It seemed the blame had been put on them however from what the article was saying. Jeez, they do a better job than some of these cops that can’t do their job and then they get blamed for shit.

“You think they would be capable of something like this? It doesn’t add up.” Jack sighed while Rachel shrugged, flipping her hand.

“I’d say so. I’ve never really liked the mainstream media. Feels like they’re getting mad that they aren’t getting answers. Still though, those heroines haven’t been doing anything that explosive. Sure there’s fire and craters. They must’ve blamed the Lunar Archer for that.” God, these media people were getting on her nerves. They’ve dealt with this the last eight months, even starting to make national news. They were in for something if the government on the corrupted side decided to take action.

“Yeah, but I don’t remember her being this destructive. I thought these girls were actually heroines.” Jack sighed before Rachel felt a vein pulse in her forehead, getting very annoyed. Of course, Jack didn’t know about what was really going on and it wasn’t like she could tell him anyways. She didn’t want him getting mixed up in all of this.

“I don’t know, Jack. Those people have been alienated by the media for a long time and many people with those abilities are oppressed. It’s hard to say, but these people are trying their best to help. They’ve saved multiple people in the past and that’s been on the news. People do stupid crap all the time. They might have powers, but they’re as human as the rest of us.” She sighed, hearing her phone going off a couple of times while she was talking. She looked over to grab her phone to see her messages and noticed Rose had sent her a link. 

Look at this article, I’m serious, Rachel. There are the robots from last night in there.

Goodness, the surprises could be shown today. Someday she was having. She clicked the link and Jack looked at her curiously.

“So, what’s up? You looked like you seen a ghost, Rach.” Jack was wondering what was with her today? She seemed pretty irritable. 

Rachel sighed, deciding to tell him about the article she read. It was posted an hour ago. The title was Millionaire Gary Shall Introduces Robots. Better than His Old Ones.

Well, not like they were that good before. She was no mechanic but she wasn’t buying all this crap. His last ones were a pure failure. She heard his name around. Some people supported him, but to her, he was another cheating corporate asshole.

She saw the wasp and pterodactyl from last night were on there. Good grief. That human didn’t know what he was getting into.

He probably didn’t care. He just wanted the lore.

“Ah, Rose sent me an article. She says these are matching the sightings of the enemy. Which means those heroines aren’t in cahoots with those crazy ‘animals’.” She used air quotes around animals. They were pretty much confirmed by robots.

She showed the article to Jack and he stared at it, reading it quietly to himself, “According to the article, his creations got loose a little last night but he was able to tame him. The heroines attacked it.” Jack read. He wasn’t really fond of millionaires himself, but he really wasn’t into politics and business either. Didn’t really seem like his thing. 

God damn it, just what they needed, a fucking billionaire trying to get into their business. She was being sarcastic. She had to admit, things were getting pretty bad for them, but if Megatron was the man Optimus explains, she could see this going south very quickly. That human had no idea what he was in for.

“Gary Shall is the guy Rose’s mom works for in her company right?” Jack asked, wondering if he had gotten his facts right.

Rachel didn’t even think about that. Shall Companies was the place Rose’s mom was working in as a secretary. If they blow this, they’re gonna be in some big trouble, especially if Gary finds out who they really are. They could put Rose’s mom at risk.

“Yeah, actually.” Now Rachel had a rare moment, showing the slight fear in her body. What the hell have they gotten themselves into? Maybe she was just paranoid, but if that millionaire really knew about that fight they had last night..

Things were bound to get worse. 

Her phone buzzed again, and it was Rose again.

We’d better tell Optimus about this.

Yeah, she was going to have to go with it now. They really didn’t know what the Predacons could do. Not to mention they almost got killed by them last night. 

She typed back, Yeah that’s a good idea; we still don’t know what these guys can do.

After a few seconds, Rose replied back.

Yeah, no kidding. You’re the leader though. Do you want to see if we should go check it out with them? This millionaire has no idea what he’s getting into here. 

The first thing in Rachel’s head she thought about was that they were going to get themselves killed if they got themselves involved. If they had the Maximals, that would definitely help, but they could still get killed.

Then again, they could die anytime they’re there alter egos. This wasn’t any different. Just an enemy they didn’t know about. Then again, did they really not know their enemy.

Finally, Rachel went to reply as a hundred thoughts flew into her mind. 

It’s probably best if we go with the Maximals. We’ll end up exposed if we don’t. It’s important we don’t blow our cover.

She sent the message and a heavy sigh fell out of her lips. Her thought from before, returning.

What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?

Sure, she wanted to save people, but this was like, aliens. They don’t know what they could do to her. It was scary.

“Rachel, are you…” Jack began, suddenly being worried. He knew she was a little freaked out. Was Rose’s mom working with that guy really that bad? 

The bell suddenly rang.

She gave Jack a small smile while she grabbed her books and got her stuff together, “I’m fine, really. Just a little anxiety for my tests next week. Have a nice weekend, Jack.” She quickly ran out the door with her other classmates before Jack could question her.

That didn’t seem like that. Girls sometimes…

XXXX

“Blast that human!” Megatron was ready to throw something. How dare this human to say he was commanded by him, created by him no less. Megatron was commanded by no one. His namesake and himself included. 

He had to get into these earth customs to manipulate this planet, to get rid of the dirtball. Being able to kill that pathetic human was going to be so satisfying, yes.

He threw a book from Gary’s library and chucked it across the room. It hit the cement wall hard while he noticed Terrorsaur and Waspinator were messing with the TV, passing through channels. Tarantulas was examining the library and Scorponok had been looking through the stock of the closets. 

He groaned, “Why are we even dealing with these humans anyway?” 

“Well, he did he threaten to expose us, Megatron.” Tarantulas replied, “but that is easily able to rectify if we come up with a plan. They could sick the human government on us, but there’s also a way we could ” They could easily take over the business easily if they just get rid of the human. However, they could be exposed, but Tarantulas really didn’t care. He wanted these humans to fear them. What was the point in hiding anyways? Eventually, it’ll happen.

Then again, he really didn’t know much about the human government. He would get his information soon enough.

“Perhaps.” Megatron agreed, “But that human is trying to fill those idiots with lies, trinkets, gifts, fake happiness.” What had really set him off was that this human of all people thought that he could really outsmart him? Ridiculous.

“One day, I will obliterate that human.” And with that, Megatron stormed off.

Tarantulas did wonder though about the human powers of this world. They had put the blame on some heroines of the city apparently that had abilities he was certain normal humans didn’t have. He wonders where is the info on that? How did these humans get abilities like that? Why? He didn’t really care about conquering really anything just his research, and he most assuredly will find some answers. Maybe even encounter some of those humans for interrogation was a good start? He wondered how much fun it would be. He hasn’t had a specimen on his dissection table in a long time.

The human gave him information of a pipeline that had been scattered in a place called Oklahoma. Interesting...and it seemed that there was energon. That was the temptation that had landed them all in this dirtball. He would get there in time, he’d just have to be patient with this human. He could get the information he was more interested in and that was the powers of these humans. Those humans Terrorsaur and Waspinator fought…

He was excited to meet them.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, you needed us?"

Optimus Primal stood across from the elemental team, staring at the Red Aura, who had all been in their hooded signature costumes. Optimus had gotten a hold of Rachel's message and had decided it was best to talk with them about what they know. They had been in the forest, hiding away from the humans of the other areas.

"Yeah, like you have allied with us, Megatron seems to have allied himself with a human." Aura explained to him, "He's a wealthy guy by the name of Gary Shall. He's a businessman that's probably tried to bribe Megatron and his Predacons." To prove this, she pulled out her phone of the article Rose linked to her earlier, showing it to Optimus.

Optimus read the article that Rachel had given him, putting a hand on his chin, "Hmmm, interesting, it seems Megatron had been using this to ally himself. I doubt he's being fooled though…"

"Yes, by some fleshling like that, Megatron sees through his...deceit." Dinobot had paused for a moment before sighing to himself, "That human is going to get easily fool."

"That's what I was thinking." Stormer nodded, "It's why we wanted to let you know. We don't know what exactly Shall is planning, but we could take a wild guess, it's probably to get the government's attention so he can get rich off of the profit of the US military." Not to mention Shall hadn't been too happy about the people working for the government that had abilities like them.

"Well, kids, you're smart an all about the guess, but what exactly do these 'robots' do?" Rattrap asked, wondering if they were all gonna die the moment they walked into this guy's place, "Better yet, we don't even know where this guy is."

"Actually, I do. My mom works in his company." Stormer explained, snapping her fingers before showing the GPS on her phone, "So, it's not too far from here, a little outside of the city. He's around the forests outside of the city. We can get there pretty quick, but if we went in alone with the Predacons there, they'd obliterate us." Stormer hadn't forgotten that those two robots from before could've killed them. They needed to play this smart and have the Maximals help them, "These robots are your state-of-the-art robots with technology. If they get a hold of your Cybertronian tech…"

Optimus was getting what she had been saying, "Are you saying that they'll make robots as strong as us."

"I'm not sure." Stormer sighed, "But I know Gary's like a spoiled brat sometimes, even if he's an adult, he's not used to not getting his way." She stated, remembering how much her mom actually did hate that job sometimes. It was like talking to a brick wall if you tried to question his authority. It was like he was a politician or something. He certainly talked too much.

"Regardless, this Gary guy doesn't sound like he'd be good to have power like ours at his use." Rhinox agreed, looking up at the four girls.

"I agree, just because my mom works for him doesn't make him a good person. He's a high corporate man and like all high corporate people, he doesn't care who he steps on so long as it benefits him." Stormer crossed her arms across her chest.

"There's also no telling if this Gary dude is going to succeed or not in making this technology or what he'll do with it. If he's working with the Predacons, then it's more than likely, not good." Optimus nodded, "We should go check it out. You four should remain here. It's not safe."

Of course, he was going to say that. Stormer rolled her eyes, finding herself wanting to go, wanting to help them. If these Predacons were going to try conquering their world, then they had to stand up and fight too, "I want to go with you guys." She clenched her fists, feeling herself getting stressed about feeling helpless, "I don't care how dangerous it is, I want to do something about this. Besides, we can guide you there."

"I understand how you feel, Stormer, but we can't risk your safety…" Optimus trailed off, realizing that these girls had put themselves in harm's way on multiple occasions and that they had been doing this for a year now. They had accepted it, but he found himself unable to want to keep humans out of it. If they continue doing what they're doing, they're bound to meet Megatron and the Predacons again for sure.

"We'll eventually run into them. It's better to see what they're capable of before throwing ourselves into them. We saw a glimpse of the other two, but that doesn't give us enough information. Besides, we're still doing this." Stormer was going to remain stubborn and she knew the other's would as well. They all hadn't forgotten why they fought so much for. They wanted people to stop being so afraid of abilities like them.

"I think Stormer makes a valid point you guys." Archer sighed, finding herself trying to intervene before an argument broke out between the two if it happened. It wasn't going to solve anything if they all fight over this, "We should be prepared for anything."

"There's no telling what could…" Optimus found himself getting frustrated once again, holding his hand to his forehead. They were right though. He didn't think he could stop these kids in getting involved even if they tried.

"Eh, let the kids try to get themselves killed." Rattrap flipped his small hand, rolling his eyes, "They'll think better next time once their ego gets taken down a few notches."

"Well, certainly they at least have a backbone unlike you, vermin." Dinobot retorted, getting closer to Rattrap's face before Rattrap pushed his face away.

"Hey, Chopperface, you might be on our team now but you sure aren't getting any special treatment by me in the slightest. You're still a Pred to me." Rattrap snapped at him before he jumped back a little by Dinobot, trying to bite him.

"If you don't shut up, rodent, you shall be receiving my wrath." Dinobot glared at him.

Rattrap put his fists up, "Oh yeah, you and who's…" He trailed off before Cheetor growled at him while Optimus glared at him. Rattrap gulped, "Okay, okay, fine, I'll shut up."

"We should establish that while this is pretty reckless." Aura began explaining, "we want to do what our hearts desire. We've been at this too long to give up now. So, you'll just have to deal with us meddling in your affairs for a bit." She smiled, trying to give a playful smirk so they can tell she meant by it, "Call us selfish, but we want the world to know that people with powers like us can stop being so hated all the time. They can earn the respect and be treated as equals."

"We're not going to be looking for a fight. I just recommend you to be careful during this. Things could get worse." Optimus told them while they nodded.

"Don't worry, if the Preds do fight against us, we'll step back and give you guys some cover." Sprite smiled, holding her blue and silver triton in her hands, pointing up to the sky.

"Yeah." Aura clenched a fist and smiled, "We'll do what we can, that's all that we care about." She told Optimus, "We can't just sit here and watch things happen. We trust you, but we want to do what we want as well."

Optimus could tell as a leader, Aura was daring. She was young, reckless. She didn't know what the Predacons were capable of aside from the first encounter they had, but they were seen to have done some strong things so he would have to watch over them. Aura, especially. If she wanted to be a part of this war, she needed to be the best leader she could be. He'd have to teach her.

"Alright, but remember you're only to do that," Optimus stated to the four of them.

Aura sighed, "Alright, let's get moving."

XXXX

7:00 PM

"Pretty big place for being in the woods."

Rattrap pointed out looking at the outer sight of the mansion. It was white, huge, with at least ten windows in the front of it. Sprite and Archer had gotten rid of the cameras around the area to ensure they would have a chance to sneak in.

"Let's make this quick." Aura gestured to Optimus who nodded, looking into the room, noticing there was no one there. His weapons were out as well as Aura's. Aura wondered why they didn't just light the entire damn building up?

Oh yeah, innocents. That, and she assumed the Predacons could survive something like this. The others had their weapons out as well, preparing themselves if they had to fight if necessary.

"It's way too quiet in here." Aura muttered to herself before suddenly seeing a shadow from the room. She jumped, aiming her chakram at the shadow. She was about to walk towards it before Rhinox stopped her. She looked over to him, knowing for a fact that they weren't gonna find out who without finding out.

"I wouldn't rush in, they could have a trap." Rhinox warned the short human. Aura sighed quietly, nodding at his words. Rhinox was right, they couldn't take chances in here. She's just getting a little jumpy.

"Yeah, kid, don't be stupid." Rattrap rolled his optics at Aura before she rolled her eyes behind her glasses.

"Didn't ask comments from the peanut gallery, jackass." She muttered under her breath, hoping that they couldn't hear it. She didn't like Rattrap from what she had heard from him.

"Shhh." Stormer hissed, "Knock it off, seriously. We don't want to trip any alarms to the enemy." She stated before hearing something as well. A missile fired, but Stormer used her lancers to try to block it, but she was knocked back from the blast, landing on the floor back first.

"Stormer!" Cheetor exclaimed, offering a hand to help her up, "You okay?" Stormer nodded, taking his hand, rising to her feet.

Archer and Dinobot had already been firing at the source of the missile being fired. Left side above. Archer took some rocks from the floor and spoke, "Get above there!" She shouted to the others.

Dinobot decided narrow his optics at the girl before he didn't move, causing Archer's eyebrows to raise in confusion. What was he waiting for? She was trying to help him out, "What are you waiting for?" She asked before she suddenly realized Dinobot was glaring at her.

"I don't need help from fleshlings." He hissed before opening fire at the source of the missiles, noticing that there was a few robots of unknown origin coming from the shadows. He quickly fired his lasers which destroyed the rocks that Archer lifted causing her to see debris coming at her at a fast speed before suddenly being pushed back by an invisible force. Aura jumped in front of her, using her telekinesis to knock the robot into the shot it had tried to avoid from Dinobot.

Gun fire shot through Aura and the other humans' ears before they suddenly stopped. Aura looked over at Archer before looking over at Dinobot, glaring at him.

"The hell were you thinking? You could've gotten her killed!" She exclaimed, gritting her teeth. Who cares if he saved them earlier, she was mad. He could've hurt Archer for sure, maybe even killed her.

"I do things my way." Dinobot informed the leader, taking a step forward, "I told her, I do not need help from the likes of you humans." He detested that humans had to help him earlier. He was disgusted from the way they defended him. So naive.

"I stood up for you earlier." Aura growled and grunted," If I knew you were going to do something like that, I wouldn't of done such a thing. You son of a..." She was cut off by Optimus pushing her and Dinobot away.

"Knock it off, both of you." He glanced at Aura, "You're going to act like that in front of your own subordinates, your friends, no less. Make a better example as a leader, Aura."

Aura scoffed and rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses, "What? You saying I should just stand one of my own getting hurt?" She demanded, resting her hands on her hips. She was getting even angrier at this point.

"I didn't say that, did I? While Dinobot shouldn't have done that, you shouldn't have gotten so worked up. Being the better person here by helping Dinobot and walking away from the situation." Optimus scolded her before he groaned. He didn't have time to be arguing with a child right now.

Aura heavily sighed, before she turned and walked away from the two, trying to bite her tongue from saying anything further. They had no time to argue at this moment, but this was not over, not by a longshot.

Suddenly, someone from the corner of her eye emerged from above the elevator, recognizing the man as Gary Shall, Aura floated her two chakrams around her in a defensive position, preparing herself in case more showed up, "Take defensive positions." She told the others who nodded and did the same.

Clapping came from the man, causing Aura to be confused at the man's reaction before her, "Bravo, you heroines certainly don't disappoint. No wonder the authorities like to keep you around." He turned over to Optimus Primal, "Ah, and the Maximals destroying my robots like they were nothing. I had a feeling, Megatron told me all about you."

"You must be Gary Shall." Optimus pointed out while Gary chuckled.

"I am, and as a man of many resources, I want to help you and your friends out," Gary stated, keeping the grin on his lips.

Aura snorted, "You think we're going to believe that after what you just did?" She rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses, "You really must think we're children." She remained her stance, not wanting to let up in case things got worse.

"Aura's got a point." Cheetor agreed, nodding, "You trying to slag us with your drones just now. How stupid do think we are?"

"Do you know what you're getting yourself into," demanded Optimus, "You're housing Megatron and the Predacons who happen to be some of the worst criminals on Cybertron!" He was insane, to say the least.

Suddenly, Stormer could hear the sound of a gun reloading before she yelled, "Move!" She hissed before a missile came out, knowing the Maximals and humans off their feet.

Smoke came around them and Stormer found herself coughing hard. She groaned in pain, looking around to seeing Sprite trying to stand to her feet, panting herself.

The hell kind of war did they just get themselves into? Sure, Stormer wanted to help other people like them not feel so guarded, but that blast just now was way stronger than before. This was insane. Were they all going to die here?

Aura stood to her feet, coughing. The hell was that? That missile was a lot stronger than the blast from before, she realized, looking over to see if everyone was okay. Everyone in her sight seemed okay, to say the least but they weren't out of the woods yet in the slightest.

She looked over at Optimus who stood to his feet. She sighed, trying to keep herself calm for the moment. This was a pretty rough situation. It would've been worse if they investigated it themselves.

"Everyone okay?" Aura was worried about everyone except for Dinobot. He could honestly fuck off at this point.

"Looks like it." Rhinox confirmed, nodding at the red hooded teen. She looked a bit shaken by the power. She was hiding it well for someone so young.

"For now." Gary chuckled, "But Megatron told me all about you Maximals. Between your weaknesses to your strengths so you better…" Gary was cut off before Terrorsaur seized him off the ground, throwing him into a wall and effectively knocking him out.

Well, that didn't last long.

"Now, back to the main course." Megatron turned his attention to the Maximals and humans, grateful that Terrorsaur shut the human up before he could.

Looks like the insects were here as well. Well, too bad for them.

"You four might wanna stay back," Optimus warned the four humans before Megatron striked Optimus in the face, sending him flying.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Aura muttered before taking a few steps back before yelling, "Guys! Don't fight the leader, got it? He'll kill you for sure." Megatron made the rest of the Predacons look like rubber ducks, and Aura didn't need a second example, "Cover when you need it but don't do a frontal assault, got it?" They needed to keep themselves useful without getting themselves killed. They would die if they take a hit from that canon.

She's the leader, huh? Megatron would give the red hooded human probs, she's certainly smart to avoid a fight with him. However, these humans were in over their heads.

"Gotcha!" The other three exclaimed while Aura's face was suddenly cut by some type of energon blade before a spider weblike rope hit her in the chest. She looked over to see the spider-like robot was the case of it, but before he could pull her in, Aura had already burned the web off herself.

"Not bad." Aura knew this guy was trying to target specifically them but why? They must've been aware of them before this. If this guy wanted to fight her then it looks like she had no choice.

Tarantulas lunged at her only to be meant with pillars of ice in front of him. It looks like one of the others had interfered. Good, more test subjects then.

"Sprite! Nice reflexes!" Aura exclaimed before she suddenly saw the pillar of ice breaking but not before she stopped it with her telekinesis before manipulating them with her own powers towards the spider robot. Before Tarantulas could do anything, a green laser strikes Tarantulas in the chest, sending him flying.

Dinobot stood a few feet away from the Red Aura before she looked over at him, "Thanks."

"I consider us even." Dinobot told her, "But do not let it get to your head. I don't like being in debt to a human like yourself."

Aura rolled her eyes, "I guess I'll say you're welcome despite your shitty attitude earlier." She pointed out, sighing.

He was still a dick though. That didn't change one bit.

She learned a bit about this Predacons though. It seems like they have some organic things based off of their beast modes.

XXXX

Meanwhile, Stormer had been giving her assistance from the rear, blowing a gust of wind at the flyers, trying to send them off course. Terrorsaur and Waspinator were blown off course, but not before Terrorsaur flipped his blaster and aimed it at the white hooded teen.

There was a shot landed on Terrorsaur; it strikes him in the chest, knocking him right into Waspinator. Rattrap landed beside Stormer, shooting the human a thumbs up.

"Not bad for a human, gave me the perfect opportunity to slag both of them." Rattrap grinned while Stormer smiled back, bowing.

"Glad to be of assistance to you, rodent." She grinned back.

XXXX

Meanwhile, Archer watched as Optimus was slammed on the ground repeatedly by Megatron, gasping. She gulped. Aura told them not to fight that guy at all, but Optimus was taking a beating. What else could she do? She couldn't just stand here and watch them all get killed.

Scorponok stood there, aiming a missile at the human who was hesitating. What a big mistake she had made, but he wasn't complaining.

Suddenly, he was hit with a barrage of bullets. Turning, Archer noticed Rhinox had been standing there.

"You can control the rocks, right?" Rhinox looked at the sight of Optimus getting beaten around by Megatron while Archer nodded.

"But, Aura told us not to engage in a battle…" Archer trailed off, being cut off by Rhinox.

"You won't have to engage, just give me a distraction. Don't worry, I got your back." He told her while she hesitated for a moment and nodded.

"Okay." Her left foot moved to the left, and it cracked the ground before shaking the ground. Megatron lost his grip on Optimus, turning to see the green hooded teen standing there. He was about to charge his cannon at her. However, his T-Rex cannon was knocked away, firing it away from her. He looked to see Rhinox in his vision before he punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground while Optimus grabbed Megatron, swinging him in a three hundred sixty angle, letting him go, sending him flying out of the building.

Optimus aimed his blasters at him, getting ready to fire at Megatron before he heard Cheetor screaming, reverting himself to beast mode.

"When the hell did that happen?" Aura demanded, looking around, before seeing Tarantulas cackling. His blaster pointed at the cheetah. She thought that guy was down. He must've been playing unconscious or something.

"Too bad for him." He chuckled before Dinobot, Aura, and Sprite took their defenses. However, Tarantulas had passed out again moments later.

The others gathered around before Sprite rushed over to Cheetor, shaking him.

"It's no good." Dinobot told them, "Cheetor has been shot with cyber venom." He stated while Stormer sighed, putting a hand on her chin.

"Cyber venom? Like some type of snake venom?" Stormer asked the Maximals while they nodded.

"That would be the human term for it, yeah." Archer shrugged, "Is he going to be okay?" She asked, turning to Optimus and Rhinox who nodded.

"He should be fine after spending a few hours in the CR chamber." Rhinox told them, "In the meantime, we shouldn't waste any further time here though or it could get worse."

"Damn, you're right." Aura wiped the blood from her face.

"You're injured as well, Aura…" Optimus began before Aura smacked his arm away, hurting her arm in the process. Geez, she forgot that they were robots.

"It's just a scratch, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've had worse." She sighed, "You guys should worry about Cheetor anyways. He's way more injured." She told him while Optimus nodded.

"You make a valid point. You guys coming back with us?" Optimus asked while Aura shook her head.

"Nah, we should head home after that fight." Aura sighed, shrugging her shoulders, trying to relax herself after that battle. The Predacons were pretty crazy. They didn't know what they had gotten themselves into, but Aura's decision to stay in this hadn't changed in the slightest. They had a significant amount of training to do though.

Now, she's gonna have to make an excuse to Lilly for why her face was cut. Oh well, not like she hadn't done that before.

"Besides, my sister might kill me if I don't make it home on time."

XXXX

"Rachel?"

Olivia Summers, Rachel's and Lilly's mother, had been standing in the kitchen when the door opened, noticing her older daughter coming in. Her blond hair had been tied into a messy bun and was wearing a pink robe. She had been home for a couple of hours now.

"Hey mom," Rachel waved before Olivia rushed over to her daughter, noticing the band-aid on her face.

"What the hell happened to you?" She demanded, touching her face where the band-aid was, "I've been keeping an eye on what's been going on in the news. Are you guys exerting yourselves again?"

"Is Lilly home at all or sleeping?" Rachel wondered, not wanting her sister to know what she's been up to over the last few months.

Olivia nodded, "I wouldn't have said anything about the news if you didn't." She had been the one to train them to control their powers and become vigilantes.

"Look, I might've gotten myself and the others caught in a war, but it'll be okay, I'm trying to keep the city safe along with the others." Rachel tried to reassured her mom who sighed.

"Damn, Rachel, I didn't expect you guys to get yourself mixed up in something like this. What type of war are you talking about?"

"Long story, but I kinda need your help. We all do, actually. There are some people messing around with the city and they might become an even bigger threat. With that said, we can't do much against them alone so please, train us some more." She knew they hadn't done much. They had been saved multiple times by the Maximals and it was the reason they were even able to stand up to the Predacons. They could've been vaporized right there if she didn't call Optimus for help.

Olivia sighed, looking at her iPhone for a second to look at her schedule, "I got the weekend off if you wanna gather your friends here, and we'll go into the woods to train." She didn't think her daughter was making up a story like this. She trusted her with this and she wasn't one to exaggerate a story like this.

"I appreciate you, mom." Rachel started to walk towards the stairs, "I'm gonna get the last of my homework done and pass out. I'm really tired."

Olivia smiled, "Good, but you girls need to give me a full explanation this weekend, got it?"

Rachel sighed, knowing full well she might be dragging her mother into this too. She didn't want to but she knew her mother was pretty strong. She had to ask her to help them, but she was better off helping them, "Okay, I will, see you in the morning, mom."

So much for keeping any secrets from her mom, but she'd be damned if she let her sister get mixed up in all this. That wouldn't be something she would let happen.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tarantulas fuck things up and traumatize the others.

At the Pentagon:

“Reports indicate some kind of weird animal sightings in the last few weeks.” 

A pale man with a black suit and tie stood at the desk, yawning. It was only eight in the morning and he was already losing his mind over this shit. Sightings of weird animals in Chicago? Strange, Chicago was already a busy complex with a high crime rate, but not too much like this happened before. Aside from these four weird girls that had been here. 

The black man that looked slightly chubby glance at him, “There’s a lot of context that isn’t explained in this report from the Chicago police force. They indicate that some of these animals have a tendency to come out strictly at night, and they might be connected to the vigilantes that are there taking the polices’ jobs.” Not that the man didn’t mind these girls doing this stuff, but if they had a connection, he certainly needed to question them.

“Connected to the vigilantes?” The other man asked, placing a hand on his chin, “You talking about those ladies who keep putting down criminals in there?”

“No, I’m referring to the chickens running amuck.” The other darker male remarked sarcastically, rolling his dark brown eyes, “Of course I mean those girls.” They were children. One of them had a similar ability to a certain former agent he knew, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on there, but I have a former retired agent that lives in Chicago. Maybe we can find out what’s going on with her thoughts.”

The white blonde male sighed, “I don’t know if she knows anything. Why do you think she knows, Agent Fowler?”

“Because that woman is pretty damn perceptive.” Fowler told him, crossing his arms across his chest, “She’s got two children, and one of them reminds me of Olivia’s powers. She’s got to know what’s going on. Plus they still needed to investigate that place where Gary Shall was at. Those robots didn’t look like his own from the news, “Sides, I think those ‘robots’ Shall had been messing with aren’t his own creation. They’re probably something worse.” They didn’t look normal that’s for sure. He turned away from his boss, “I intend to find some things out, Ashter.”

“Knock yourself out, Fowler, but if your theory remains truth, then we’re going to have to take action.” Aster remarked, motioning the agent to get out of his sight.

Fowler walked towards the door before glancing at Ashter, “Right, let’s hope whoever these people are on the right side. Otherwise, we’re going to have some trouble.” He didn’t even want to imagine if these, aliens got their nuclear tech at some point.

He walked the halls of the Pentagon, dialing a certain agent he hadn’t talked to in a long time, “Agent Robert, it’s me, Fowler. I need you to do me a favor.” With his skills, he needed someone else with him for this or else it was game over. He had to be prepared for the worst. These crazy sightings couldn’t be just a coincidence.

XXXX

“Feast upon something I’ve come up with to help us in this war.”

Tarantulas stood in the building along with his fellow Preadcons. Holding up his new device in his hands, “Introducing, a cloaking device I made.” He cleared his throat, continuing on, “It should help us blend in with these humans much better than what we have.” 

Much disguises as well. Megatron smiled a bit, excited that they could use this new device. It would help them quite a bit in the war, yesss. 

“Interesting, good work Tarantulas, yesss.” Megatron clapped silently, grinning. It was interesting how this human tech was so much primitive compared to their own, “This should also break the chains of us dealing with that pathetic human.” He was excited, maybe he would be able to tear that human’s head off. 

“Not to worry.” Tarantulas smirked, lifting a servo up, picking up something with his other servo, showing something to Megatron, “I have that already taken care off.”

Megatron grinned at what Tarantulas was holding. The dead human’s head that he had wanted to kill so bad. This marks the moment where he’ll be able to obtain power. 

Blood was splattered on the floor, indicating that Tarantulas probably took his time killing the human. If any human was in the room, they probably would’ve thrown up. 

“Scorponok, Waspinator.” Megatron turned to his two soldiers that stood in beast mode, “Clean that up. We have things we must tend to, yesss.” He clenched a fist, slamming it into his palm. He had control of this company now and he would have much more access to things.

“Waspinator is always clean up mech.” Waspinator whined, looking down while Scorponok smacked him upside of his head, “Waspinator feels pain.”

“Do as Megatron said. This is useful to our plans.” He transformed, preparing to do what his leader instructed.

XXXX

 

 

Another day, another migraine from school. Rachel sighed, yawning as she opened the door to her house, walking in to see her mom at the sink.

“Hi Rachel. How was your day?” Olivia asked, drying some dishes that she was working on off. 

Rachel yawned, “Boring, Lilly is at Delia’s house again. Sierra invited me, but I turned her down.” She didn’t really need to be social with Sierra anyway or with anyone. She was tired and wanted to relax before she went out tonight to kick some ass. Who knows what else what will happen? 

“Not feeling up to it tonight?” Olivia asked. She looked exhausted, a lot more than usual. 

“Eh, school was boring as usual. It always leaves me so damn drained.” Rachel yawned, “Thinking I need a nap honestly. I’m gonna go to my room for a…” Rachel trailed off, seeing what was going on the TV. The voice she heard. 

It made her heart sank. Her eyes widened in horror at the human’s voice.

“I am honored to be given the Shall Industries company.” The voice declared, identifying it as the Predacon leader they all stumbled upon the other night…

Megatron.

She dropped her bag, her mind, still trying to comprehend every word he was saying. Fuck, fuck, they were in deep trouble if he got a hold of Shall industries. 

That voice was terrifying to her. It made her skin crawl, it made her body tremble and sweat nervously. He was a monster. As the leader of the four, would she have to face him in a battle one day? 

Would she be ready? Would she be ready to face that evil? Could she? There’s no way she could. She wasn’t prepared. Damn, she hated feeling this helpless, this vulnerable. She was never someone to feel this much fear before. Sure, she felt fear something, but this, this was a new fear. This was unreal, this wasn’t like the other crooks she faced. She’s always felt as if she was on top of the world, but this, this guy had her terrified.

“Rachel? Everything okay?” Olivia asked, looking over at her.

Rachel didn’t know what to say. Her heart was pounding, pounding loudly. She wasn’t safe, no one was. If that monster got her and the others’ secret revealed, they were going to be in big, big, big, trouble.   
They could all die fighting that guy. It would take them all and he would still remained victorious. She couldn’t even let herself tell her mom what she had known. That was crazy, could any of mom’s former agent friends survive a battle with that? How could they? Could her mom handle him?

“Rachel, you’re shaking.” A hand was on Rachel’s shoulder. Her mother knocked her out of her state. Her shocked and terrified state. She could tell Rachel was getting anxiety, and that wasn’t like her. 

“I’m sorry.” Rachel sighed, still not being able to tell her mom about what was happening, “I’m okay.” She was still shaking. Damn, she hated feeling like this. There’s nothing they could do with that. She was worried how things were going to go if this company did gain a lot more technology. Real and dangerous and how much harder it would be for them to do their heroine stuff. 

Olivia watched her slowly walk into her room and shut the door behind her. She was worried. She knew that look, but Rachel didn’t want to tell her, at least, not yet. She hoped to hear the explanation on the weekend. 

She at least hoped so.

XXXX

Meanwhile, Rose sat on the couch of the living room of her house, watching the same thing on the television. Her eyes, widened in horror at the voice. This... this was bad. Her mom worked under that company. If her identity was revealed, her mom and everyone she knew could be at risk. 

It worried her. Her mom... her family. What would happen to them? What would happen to her friends? 

She wanted to quit, she wanted to quit so bad, and yet, she still wanted to fight. She still wanted to help people. She was so torn. She didn’t want anyone to die, but could they save everyone? Could they? She didn’t know what would happen to them. She was scared, terrified. Nonetheless, she couldn’t get why she still wanted to help.

“In other news, there’s a lot of activity going on at the pipeline construction starting in North Dakota. They are beginning to start work towards the state of South Dakota.” 

That almost made Rose jump out of her seat, “What the hell?” She exclaimed before immediately covering her mouth. She didn’t mean to be that loud. Goodness, that’s where her home was. If they were in the beginning of it in the state, it would probably take them two months at best to get to the pipeline. She had to go back home then and protest, fight for her people. She had to. 

Screw giving up, this was the reason why she wanted to be a heroine. She had to, she had to keep going. 

She should text the others about this…

XXXX

Sophie stood at the sight of the TV as well. Her eyes, widening, gripping on her blue bag tightly. That voice…. she remembered that from a couple of weeks ago. She gulped, swallowing her fear in her throat. This wasn’t good. Just when she had just been excited from her brother to come home for a few weeks. 

She didn’t know how to feel about this; no one in her family knew she was the Water Sprite, one of the vigilantes. With them starting to get bigger, it kind of worried her. She knew the consequences, but she wanted to be like her big brother, saving people and stuff while not really having to deal with all those crazy checks they have to go through. Not to mention being free was pretty nice.

She didn’t expect things to escalate this quickly. This was insane. She was supposed to be preparing Blake to come home, not this kind of crap.

XXXX

Scarlet was holding her little sister Ava while her other brothers and sisters were around the table in the kitchen. They were drawing, laughing together. She was about to put Ava into a nap, but she froze at the voice at the TV…

Oh no, oh no…

Fuck, she had to keep herself together.

“Scarlet, why are you trembling?” Ava asked her before hearing no response from her. She stared at her sister, feeling her tremble. She was worried about her sister. Something was wrong.

Scarlet took her to her room, resting her in the small bed, “I’m okay, no worries.” She didn’t even realize she was trembling earlier.

She ran out of the room before looking at her fifteen-year-old brother, “Watch everyone, I gotta run for a bit.” She told him, ignoring her brother’s protest of why did he have to do it before she opened the door, jumping off the concrete steps and landing on the ground gracefully. She needed to run back over to someone else’s house or else get to somewhere where she could have a call with the others. 

Her phone buzzed when she was not even a block away from her house. She opened it to see it was their group chat she had with the other girls in her squad, and it was from Rose

We’ve got a heck of a problem right now!

There was someone typing, before Scarlet put herself in an alleyway, panting. She saw the message a second later. This time, from Rachel

No kidding, I saw it.

A moment later, Rose’s text came through.

I hate to say it, but I’m worried about everything going on now. This might shape the world itself. Everything we might have been trying to do might go in vain.

A reply immediately buzzed from her phone, and Scarlet found herself decided to keep walking with her head down, glued to her cellphone. Rachel had responded next.

You telling me we should just give up?

Rachel was something else. She was pretty stubborn when it came to this kind of stuff. Scarlet just prays her need to help others wouldn’t be the death of her.

Rose responded a few seconds later as Scarlet came into view of an alleyway a few feet away from her.

That’s not what I’m trying to say at all. We gotta agree if we keep continuing to do this kind of work, our example might end in death. 

Finally, Sophia answered in to give her two senses.

I know, but we did get that warning before we began all of this. 

Yeah, I know. We can’t quit this though. There’s too much at stake. 

Too much at stake? Rachel had always been a doer that’s for sure. It’s why they named her as the leader. She wasn’t the wisest person in the world but she wasn’t the stupidest. She had the most motivation out of all of them. 

Scarlet knew Rachel was a bit reckless, but she knew she trusted the Maximals to help them. They weren’t in this alone. She was approaching the alleyway, sitting in the corner, and decided to add her thoughts. They couldn’t just watch these Predacons wreak havoc to their society.

I’m still in this. It’s bad, but it isn’t impossible to stop him with whatever he’s planning.

Yeah, I agree with you, but I’m sure Optimus might need to know about this.

That’s the spirit, you guys. Let’s not forget what made us go into this path.

Scarlet still felt that Rachel, Rose, and Sophia were crazy still, but they were her friends and they wouldn’t stray her wrong. 

Man, I think you all are crazy, but I trust all of you. What about you, Sophia?

Yeah, I just want to see my brother when he gets here is all. I haven’t seen him in a year. 

Scarlet was about to reply before she heard something coming from the end of the alleyway she was sitting in. Her eyes darted to a man that looked to be in his thirties. Black slicked up hair, green eyes, staring at her. 

“My-My apologies, miss. It looks like I’ve been losing my way around this big city.” That voice sounded familiar and yet, Scarlet didn’t know why it was familiar to her. It sounded nasally, and low. It wasn’t abnormal for people to get lost in Chicago of all places, especially if they were people touring. 

Still, Scarlet found it odd that he was in an alleyway of all places. Usually people wanted to stay away from Chicago’s alleyways. They did have some pretty big crime, even after them doing all this heroing that they’ve been doing as of late.

Nonetheless, Scarlet kept her guard inwardly, but outwardly, she was relaxed, “Ah, it’s usually normal in these parts.” She smiled, “Are you a traveler?”

“Yes, it seems I’ve lost my way from my group. If you could help that would be greatly appreciated.” The man stated.

“Whatcha looking for?” Scarlet asked, still suspicious. Her phone, buzzing from the group chat with her friends, probably.

“Ah, I was trying to get to a certain place. Would you escort me there, dear? These parts are pretty terrifying.” The man remarked, “Besides, it’s odd that someone as young as you are wandering on your own in these parts.”

“You get used to the craziness.” Scarlet gave the man a smile, remembering that she really did need to get home though, “Just tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll point you in the right direction.” She could feel her phone buzzing in her pocket.

Well, she hoped the guy would tell her.

“Ah, well, it would be way easier for you to just take me there.” The man retorted, trying to get the human caught in his webs.

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I have no time to…” Scarlet trailed off, immediately feeling a trail of danger etching into her entire being. The atmosphere changed suddenly at the man suddenly towered over. Fear plagued her mind as if it was screaming for her legs to run or for her to fight, but fighting wasn’t the best, especially since she wasn’t the Lunar Archer at the moment. 

There, however, was no time to think, the man immediately had knocked her out with a strong punch to the face in a matter of seconds.

XXXX

Scarlet had been absent from the group chat since they had talked about vowing to stay with their identities til the end. Rachel had noticed it. However, Rachel was aware Scarlet had about six siblings and anything could’ve gone wrong in the course of that time. She left it be as all of them had finished chatting a while ago.

Maybe she should call. Then again, Rachel didn’t want to bother her if she was busy.

She groans, putting her phone down on her desk, wanting to pull her hair off. Why did she have to be like this sometimes? Ugh, she needed some water.

She decided to open the door to her room, rushing down the stairs only to see her mom sitting with two people she didn’t know.

“Oh Mom, you didn’t tell me you had company coming.” Oh yeah, it occurred to her that she had to go do her city work in an hour. She scratched the back of her head, “I just want some water. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” 

The African American man stood up from where he had been sitting, offering a hand in front of Rachel, “Rachel, I’m Special Agent William Fowler. I worked with your mother for a while.” He jabs a finger to Robert behind him, “And this is Agent Robert. I brought him here in case I couldn’t stop your mother to stop you.”

Rachel chuckled, “Stop what?” He couldn’t know she was the Red Aura of all things. 

“Don’t play that game with me, young lady.” Agent Fowler pointed a finger at her, glaring at her darkly. “You know what you’re doing. Becoming Vigilantes when you’re supposed to be in school. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Rachel sighed heavily, rolling her eyes, “Wow, it’s almost like you didn’t think I took this all into consideration over, I don’t know, the last fucking year.” She remarked sarcastically, resting a hand on her hip, “I’ve been at this for a year and now, yet here you are, trying to convince me to stop?” Especially after what she had discovered? No, this was their fight too. To hell if she was being selfish. She deserved to be every once in a while, “I might be seventeen years old, but damn, you really must think I have no brain despite dealing with crime better than the United States has these days.” A heavy sigh escaped Fowler’s lips.

“Okay, that’s one scolding out of the way, but if you’re going to be stubborn about this, Rachel then, you better tell me about those crazy animal robots you’ve been tailing with.”

“What?”

“Your mother said you needed answers from her too. I showed her the reports too.” Agent Fowler told her as Rachel heavily sighed, walking over to take a seat.

“Fine, fine," She looked over at Fowler, “But you both gotta tell promise me the United States ain’t gonna go crazy and hurt them.” 

Robert gave a heavy sigh, standing to his feet from his seat before Fowler could say anything to her words, “We’ll make sure of that to the best of our abilities.” 

Fowler looked at him for half of a second before groaning, “Fine, fine, then you take the blame, Robert.”

“Gladly, sir.” Robert couldn’t help but grin at that.

XXXX

Cheetor hadn’t been out for long. In fact, he had been on a little patrol before he saw postings of a missing person on the tree near him and more posted a few ways away from him as well. His eyes widened. How could there been so many missing people? 

They were all last seen in about the same place as well. Young and old, even some authorities too…

He should check this out. Look at the scene, but his beast mode was so out of place in broad daylight. It wasn’t a good decision, but seeing all these postings, he wanted to take a stand against it.

Suddenly, he heard his comm link go off, “Cheetor here, what’s shaking?”

“Cheetor, we just got a distress signal from Stormer. She said she found Archer’s cell phone in an alleyway that was linked to some disappearances.”

“Disappearances?” Cheetor trailed off, “Did she give her location?”

“She said she was near a pizza place that was popular in Chicago.” Rhinox told him on the intercom, “Optimus is worried Archer might be in danger by the same disappearances.”

Scarlet was in danger? By the same disappearances? “I’m on my way to there, then. Don’t worry, everyone will be okay.” At least, she hoped so.

“If you two get into any danger, don’t be afraid to call for backup. Got it?” Rhinox’s voice from the comlink, sounding much more bold, and a little concerned about what was happening. This wasn’t good, and he hoped he would actually call for backup if needed.

“Yeah, don’t worry about that, I’ll find her easily.” 

XXXX

There is nothing more empowering than finding out new things for the mad scientist himself. Tarantulas had yet to find a single human that had power, but this one, this one that was still unconscious had it. They had the power that he had been longing for. Granted, he didn’t know what exactly it was yet, but that doesn’t matter. His chances of unraveling this world’s human supernatural abilities had been upon him, unable to be swayed by even Megatron if he didn’t want it. 

However, that hadn’t been the case. As if he had cared what he had thought. He wanted to work on his own agenda, away from Megatron. Such motivations should be important. Living for someone wasn’t Tarantulas’s thing. No, he had wanted to live for the study of studying a fine specimen, able to let out their last breath as blood stained the room and the screams had slow down to a quiet one. It had been music to his ears to hear the last of his victims give out their last light of hope in front of them and died, knowing all too well there was nothing to save them.

The dried blood was still on the ceiling and on the walls of this little run down place he took over. The wooden areas, showed the pain that had peeled off slowly but surely towards the top, revealing the white paint that was once there, slammed with the color of red gush that had now dried. The room that was once filled with a dry dust smell was now tainted with the smell of blood, hard dead flesh. It didn't bother Tarantulas as he hadn’t mind eating more and more flesh. He was a spider after all and a spider, he had a tendency to act like. 

Besides, if this one fails like the rest of them, he would just eat this one and hunt down more until he had something perfected. 

He hears the groaning coming from the small female laying in his spider web, trapped. At least, that’s what he had assumed. A cold chuckle fell from his lips, turning to look down at the female who looked as if the color from her face had disappeared from her at the sight of him. He could feel it, her fear. Her exhilarating fear that made him excited to tear this specimen down.

“Ah, ah,” His voice was a bone chilling tone to add to the already horrific tension that would leave anyone really terrified. He couldn’t blame them. It was no wonder why they hated the so called ‘monster’ within him. He was simply someone who wanted their curiosity satisfied. He was nothing more than normal. He just had hobbies that people didn’t seem as normal.

“You’re awake, I hope you don’t mind, but your planet has gotten me very interested in the power scales of this society.” Tarantulas advances over to the female human, hovering over her. His optics stared into her, as if the predator was advancing on his prey, homing in for a kill. 

The girl responded with a muffled shriek, looking away from him. Her eyes, shut tight, causing Tarantulas to laugh in response to her movement, leaning down to her level, “Oh come now, my dear, I have no reason to lie to you now. You’re one of the first ones I’ve found that has an ability. A true honor for you.”

He ripped the web away, releasing her. His servo falls to touch her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. He then tightens his grip on her, lifting her up to meet his eye level, “I do believe you’ll certainly get some benefit out of it, but don’t worry, you’ll be of used to be even if you die before I can find out what your power is.”

The girl flickered in fear trying to struggle out of his grasp, letting out a scream of protest. Using his other servo, he touches the girl’s head, running it down into her long black hair, “Shhhhhh, no need to bring attention. I promise, I always treat the ladies much kinder.” A dark sinister laughter made the honey sweet tone in his voice moments ago feel ironic. 

There was one thing in Scarlet’s mind other than fearing for her life, unable to release her power because then, he would know her true identity. That very thing was the fact that this must be the same person causing all these murders around their home. It wasn’t unlike Chicago to have crime, but she knew, for a fact, she was witnessing what the others did, and they were all probably dead judging from his words.

She had wanted to fight, wanted to fight back, but what could happen if someone was onto the case and was on their way here to help her? What if there was a way for her to get out? That she just wasn’t going to die? The vice grip he had indicated to her that he was easily going to be able to snap her neck if need be. If she made any noise, any wrong move, she’d be good as dead.

At least, that’s what she thought. To him though, he wasn’t going to kill her. At the very least, not yet. He wanted to find out, and it would be much easier if the girl would tell him.

“Now,” Tarantulas told her, “you can either make this easy, or…” He gestures to the experiment table a few feet away from him, “you can make this harder for me.” 

Hesitation falls on her. If she knew who she was, she could danger the others too. They weren’t around, and she thinks that either way, she will land in a world of pain. To the point of death. She really wanted to not die this quickly. She didn’t want it. She wanted to live, but she didn’t see a way out of this. No one knew where she was at, no one knew what was going on. What was she supposed to do? Was she supposed to tell him? No, she couldn’t handle him finding her records and tracing it to her friends. Who knows what could happen?

She wasn’t even Archer right now, and she was suffering, suffering. Was getting involved in this war worth it? This guy was a monster. A living, breathing, monster. He could easily kill her. She’s realized how useless she truly is in this position. Nothing was going to happen to her. 

She was sorry. Sorry to her siblings, sorry to even her mother who hadn’t been best mother around. Sorry to even her dad, who has been absent in her life for a long time, but most importantly, she was sorry to her friends.

“I-I-” She choked out, tears begging to fall from her eyes. This wasn’t fair, this wasn’t fair at all. With Megatron’s lead in power now, they’d be able to do so much worse. Get away with so much worse and yet, she would be unable to stop. To do anything. Nothing would bring those people back. Nothing. They all had lives, goals, prospers.

The sudden jolt of a door breaking snapped her out of her thoughts. A blast, firing not even a moment later, and she finds herself on the ground. A hand, covering her face as she hears a familiar voice call out. 

“Not a chance in hell you’re doing anymore slaughter, chuckles.” Cheetor stepped out of the shadows, aiming his blaster at the tarantula mech before him that had been knocked back from the blast. 

“Maximals, always ruining my fun.” Tarantulas sighed before he pulled out a device and pushed the button on it, revealing a few human soldiers who all had some kind of black helmet on their heads, “Get him.” 

Before that could happen, the building began to shake. The windows in the building, breaking instantly. Scarlet rushed away from the debris, covering her head with her arms, panting. She looked up to see a familiar woman with a white and pink outfit.

Hope had arrived. She was lucky.

Scarlet froze, however, the instant a gun was pointed at her from Tarantulas. Her eyes widened. He was using her to stop them from fighting.

“It’s an honor to meet one of you superhumans in person. However, take one false step from either one of you, and it’s goodbye to the person you wanted to so desperately save.” 

Cheetor hesitated, still pointing the gun at Tarantulas, not wanting to fight the humans. He was tense. How could someone do that to a bunch of innocent creatures? He didn’t understand this. Sure, he was still a rookie, but why did people who had no involvement have to die like this today? 

“You’re a monster.” Cheetor growled, looking at the blood stained walls and back at Scarlet. He had to make sure not to tell her real name or alias or else Tarantulas would know, “How could you?”

Stormer didn’t utter a word, but she felt the same way as Cheetor. Why did people have to do something like this? She had been shocked at the scene she had looked down into. The blood stains, the stench of flesh, but was even more disgusted at the humans that Tarantulas had in some kind of control. It made her blood cold, it made her want to vomit. It made her feel unable to breathe.

“Monster? Ha.” Tarantulas snorted, “I’m simply like any of you, wanting to motivate my own path by satisfying my curiosities, and yet, you dare think that I am unjust? Judging such primitive things are merely pointless. I am merely doing what I want to do.” He kept his weapon pointed at Scarlet, “Now, put your weapons down, the both of you.”

There was suddenly a lancer that slammed into his face, following a lance knocking away his blaster. Tarantulas scrambled to grab it, waving something to his human army to attack the girl now that these two didn’t listen to them. They closed in on the girl only to have a powerful force of wind to knock back. Stormer jumped off the roof and into the inner building, landing in front of where the other humans had been knocked back.

“Cheetor! Get Tarantulas, I’ll take the others on while I protect the human.” Stormer eyes were glowing with determination with a hint of anger. No matter what, it would probably be easier for her to handle the ten people that Tarantulas mind control. Maybe by breaking those helmets, she might be able to stop him?

Cheetor nodded, but Stormer didn’t like that look in his eyes. There was something that angered him. She understood, but if he wanted revenge for what that monster did to Scarlet and other humans that have been around here, it wouldn’t do any good.

A human snapped her out of her thoughts, grabbing her by the arm, as the other one tried to aim a crowbar at her face. She threw the one that was gripping onto her arm like a vice into the one that was about to hit her, crashing them into the ground. 

“Stormer, look out!”

The sudden blast that came out of Tarantulas’s blaster fired, coming straight at Stormer. Scarlet had retreated to a hiding spot thankfully. However, that wasn’t her concern right now…

“If you dodge the attack, you’ll kill them.” Tarantulas chuckled, dodging a blast from Cheetor.

Shit, she didn’t take that in. It was a good strategy on his part, Stormer couldn’t help but admit that. However, she only had a second to react. She ducked down, using her wind powers knock everyone down from harm’s way. The blast then shot through the wooden wall behind her knocking her forward. Debris fell above her, but she quickly threw up another gust of wind to stop it from crashing down, keeping the wind going at the debris until she was able to move it aside. 

She coughed, flipping backwards to dodge a swipe from one of the mind controlled humans. She had barely avoided it. That damn spider…

She was angry, she could admit that, but if she loses focus right now, she could die. She needed to keep her anger down just a little more. She could get mad later.

“How dare you!” She heard Cheetor roar, unable to keep his anger in check like she was. She could feel her anger boiling as well as she avoided another punch, spinning in a three hundred sixty-degree angle before using her lancers that were being controlled by the air to trip the man that had been trying to hit her over, knocking him to the floor. 

He suddenly grabbed her leg, dragging her to the ground hard, “Damn.” She cursed, watching all the other humans advance on her. Her breath was caught in her throat and she unleashed a much more power blast of air, raising her arms upwards. She kicked the man in the face that held her down, freeing herself of his grip. She watched the other humans crash into the walls, all unconscious at this point.

Panting, she rose to her feet, adjusting her sunglasses before realizing she only had a matter of moments to react to the barrage of bullets, bringing up her lancers to spin around to protect her. One of them grazed her shoulder. Gasping in pain, she held her gaze shoulder from the attack. Her rapid breathing, increasing.

She swore again, unable to try to stop the bleeding for right now, still blocking Tarantulas’s attacks.

“You both lose.” Tarantulas cackled.

There was a sudden explosion that occurred that suddenly caused part of the ceiling to crash down on Tarantulas, forcing him to cease fire on Stormer. Rattrap, landing on the ground on top of them.

“Hey fellas!” Rattrap exclaimed, holding one of his bombs before him, “You kids okay?”

Cheetor didn’t answer, he pointed his gun at where Tarantulas once stood, knowing he was still there.

“Cheetor!” Stormer exclaimed, rushing over to him in a matter of seconds, “Don’t.” Her hand reached out, trying to stop Cheetor from killing him.

“Stormer, he’s killed so many humans and controlled them.” Cheetor shook his head, “They’re your kind. Don’t you think he deserves to die?” 

Stormer’s eyes widened, feeling the pit of her stomach twist in response, taking a step back away from the Maximal.

“Kid, don’t. It’s over, let’s just get the kid home and back to base….” Rattrap urged him before Cheetor cut him off.

“No, he did so much bad things. He deserves to pay for it.”

“This isn’t the Maximal way, kid.” Rattrap told him, trying to get him from stopping. Who knows if he would stop killing if he did so. It was for his own good.

Cheetor couldn’t take it anymore, he fired and Tarantulas’s screams filled the air. 

However, Stormer and Rattrap’s faces soften a bit to realize that Tarantulas was still alive.

Tarantulas’s spider legs were around them and he emerged immediately. 

Stormer didn’t take any chances, she immediately rushed over to find Scarlet. He probably couldn’t do anything but the look of rage on the spider robot’s face made her immediately want to flee. 

“I’ll kill all of you.” Tarantulas growled. All of his work, all of his precious research as he heard his computers’ sparking with electricity.

“Let’s get out of here, kids.” Rattrap motioned both of them to move.

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Tarantulas screamed again while Stormer threw Scarlet over her shoulder and Rattrap and Cheetor rushed out of the room.

Groaning fell from Tarantulas broken and battered robotic body, cackling, “You may win this round Maximals, but the war has only begun. I’ll kill all of you slowly and painfully.”

The cackling echoed in the broken and damaged room, leaving Tarantulas alone.

XXXX

“Hey thanks for that.” 

Scarlet was now walking with them, “I’m sorry by the way that I couldn’t do anything.” 

“It’s alright, kid, I’m just glad you’re okay.” Rattrap chuckled.

“But Stormer…” Scarlet began, averting her eyes away from the group.  
“Nah, don’t worry, it’s just a bit of a scratch.” Stormer showed the shoulder that had been shot was now covered with some fabric from her jacket, wrapped around tightly. It’s not like she hadn’t been shot before anyway. About the third time that happened. It was a good thing she had some first aid classes when she was a freshman for a babysitting class she took.

“I’m sorry, you guys.” Cheetor sighed, looking at the two in his beast mode, “I didn’t mean to cause trouble.”

“Hey, you have nothing to apologize. To be honest with you, I was pretty close to snapping too. If Rattrap didn’t show up, I probably would’ve.” Stormer shrugged looking over at the rodent, shooting him a thumbs up, “So thanks, you saved our lives back there.”

“You got nothin’ to worry about, kid. At least it didn’t happen. Glad Rhinox called me right after talking to you. He was pretty worried about sending two kids out there, especially you.” He looked at Stormer, “You guys are still kids. You haven’t had to see the things we have had.”

“Yeah, I understand. I should thank Rhinox and not you.” A soft chuckle fell from her lips as Rattrap rushed over to her.

“Hey, I deserve some thanks, I saved your tailpipes, all of you.” Rattrap pointed a finger at Stormer’s face whose chuckle quickly turned into a laugh.

“Sure, sure, but Rhinox told you to come here.” Stormer waved her hand, feeling a bit better, but she was still pretty shaken from that, “He’s the real saver.”

“Really wish I didn’t get so distracted from the group text earlier though.” Scarlet sighed, “Sorry, I tried to shake him. He was giving me a really bad vibe back in the alleyway. Now I know why.”

“Stop apologizing kid, you got out of there alive and that’s all that matters, but you’re still a kid. If you need to talk about getting over that experience, and I’m referring to all of you when I say this too, I’m your bot and everyone on the team are too, and that includes the humans that you’re teamed with.” As much as he really didn’t like them at first, they were starting to grow on him, but he was never going to admit that.

“Yeah, we’re your friends.” Cheetor grinned, “Even Rattrap if he doesn’t want to admit it.”

Slagging kid… “Hey, I said nothing about that!” Rattrap clenched a fist in his paws. 

“I’m sure Optimus would like how you sound.” Cheetor chuckled, running into the sunset.

Rattrap ran after him, “Hey! I ain’t done with you yet! You get back here, kid!”

And the Maximals’ beginning of their adventure, had begun, leading to some important destinies and some heartbreaks, but what mattered, that they had each other.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel notices something wrong with Rose and decides to try to help her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the lateness! Happy 2019 everyone! I hope your year has a less of a rough start mine did. I ended up with appendicitis on New Year's Eve! I feel much better now though! My semester starts tomorrow so I'll still be slow. I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's a little short with a lot of exposition. We'll be getting to two action-packed arcs soon though.
> 
> Disclaimer: Beast Wars Transformers and any other canon character don't belong to me, only my OCs.

“So, why did our founding fathers make a Bill of Rights?” Mr. Thompson asked his class. His finger pointed at the Powerpoint presentation that was on the screen, indicating the question. 

American Government hadn’t quite been too bad for Rachel. In fact, social sciences had always been something she liked. It was a nice step back from Science and English classes that Rachel had found very meh. About a week had passed since the incident with Tarantulas that Rose and Scarlet had to face. Her two teammates hadn’t been the same since then and frankly, she couldn’t blame them. She remembered when Fowler scolded her about being stubborn about this battle, telling her that things would certainly be rough if they actually decided to abandon their vigilante career. However, he issued a warning that this war could tear them all about, but Rachel knew she couldn’t just stand there and do nothing about this either.

She had seen what had happened to her friends though, the states they were in, and it hurt that she couldn’t help them slightly. However, she could not let that weakness be shown. She was the leader. She needed to let out a good example.

It was like what Optimus had said had started banging into her head. When he had approached her the day after, requesting to teach her some things about being a leader and such, she couldn’t help but accept it considering the circumstances. 

What she had found out though that Optimus hadn’t been the best at leadership and he was inspired by the previous ancestor: the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. She, too, had her own inspiration, and that was her mother.

Fowler and Robert were planning on meeting Optimus soon. She realized that the day was today and she needed to be there too to talk about what was going on too. She also wanted this whole Government involvement to run smoothly. Mom had already told Fowler she would come along if they needed it. However, Fowler said he didn’t need it. She trusted him because he was a friend of her mom’s, but she was still a little concern.

“Miss Homma,” Mr. Thompson began, glancing at Rose who was sitting a few desks away from Rachel, “You need to pay attention next time.”

Giggles echoed through the room and Rachel found herself angered at the talking she heard people say. Saying that Rose wasn't so miss perfect after all and heard a few racial slurs in the room that made her almost want to sucker punch someone. She knew it was Vince of all people that said that. Asshole.

“Hey, hey, we do not use that language here, Vince.” Mr. Thompson scolded him as Rose sighed.

“No, my apologies, Mr. Thompson.” Rose rose to her seat. You could see the bags from underneath her eyes, “I’m not feeling good. I’m just gonna go to the nurse’s office if that’s alright.”

The teacher nodded, motioning Rose to leave as she did so. 

That made Rachel a little worried about her. What was going on with her? Was it just the incident? What was going on with her? 

The lecture went on and lunch was starting. Rose had come back to get her things, telling her teacher that she was going home for the day. 

When Rachel was walking out of the classroom, she felt a tap on her shoulder, turning over to see Jack standing there. 

“You mind if I walk with you, Rachel?”Jack asked while she nodded, noticing he looked a little distorted.

“You look a little upset, Jack. Is there something the matter?” Rachel asked, yawning to herself as they went down the stairs. 

“Well, Vince seems to usually go rampant on me after class. Figured you might be able to help me. I didn’t get much sleep last night either.” He scratched the back of his head, looking at her, “You seem a bit annoyed.” Well, it seemed like a normal Rachel reaction if he was honest with her. 

“Eh, I wouldn’t say annoyed.” Another yawn fell on her lips, “I didn’t get a lot of sleep either, but hey, if you needed a knight, I’m down.” She told him.

“Yeah, I can tell, but you never sleep much, it seems.” Jack pointed out. She was always almost falling asleep in class, and she always had dark circles above her freckles. 

“Eh, such is a fate of a high school student.” Came the response, waving his comment off, “So Vince has been harassing you?”

“When doesn’t he?” Jack sighed, “I’ve tried to go to the teachers about him, but he’s like the star football player so he doesn’t get into trouble ever. They just wave me off.” 

“You ever try fighting back?” Rachel asked.

“Are you crazy, Rachel? My mom would totally kill me and she’s too busy working at the hospital to worry about me.” Jack replied with a heavy sigh. He was certain he didn’t want his mother involved in this.

Rachel hadn’t seen it happen, but considering Vince’s attitude, she figured he did it. Plus Jack Darby wasn’t one for lying by any means. He was always that awkward kid who felt guilty about it eventually.

“I’m just saying, standing up for yourself is important too. You don’t have to get physical with him. Just show him that his bullying has no effect on you.” Rachel sighed as she saw Vince from the corner of her eye when she walked into the cafeteria.

Oh boy.

“Hey Darby, I think you owe me an apology” Vince quickly got into his face, motioning him to get some.

Rachel’s eyes narrowed. She was about to say something herself, but Jack’s words stopped her from doing so.

“Ah, ah, well, I uhhhh…” 

A shove pushed Jack back, “Don’t give me that shit, Darby, you know what you did and you know it. Now hurry up before I take it myself.” He pushed Jack down, about to advance on him before Rachel stepped in, “You stopped me from getting my food earlier at your job last night.”

“You were also half drunk.” Jack elaborated, before standing to his feet, glaring at the boy, “I remember underage drinking a felony, especially at Sierra’s house.”

Rachel choked back a giggle in response. Darby wasn’t a bad guy at all. She was pretty proud of him. She hadn’t seen this side of him before. To be fair, she was kind of happy to see this going down.

Vince’s attention turned to Rachel, “What the hell are you laughing about, Summers?”

Rachel, who quite honestly had no problem sassing problematic boys like Vince, snorted, “Hm? The fact you just got scolded by Darby. It’s great to see him not taking any shit from pretentious assholes like you.” 

“What did you just say to me, Summers?” Vince snapped while Rachel put a hand up in defense.

“I don’t have to repeat myself.” Rachel rolled her eyes, “You should keep your childish games to yourself before it shatters your entire career in high school.” Or therefore, the rest of his life, “Other people won’t be as compassionate to you, especially me.” Unlike Jack, unlike any of his other victims, Rachel had no intention of giving him the upper hand. That wasn’t how this was gonna stop, and honestly, she rather not resorts to having to defend herself here. Mostly because she rather not school the boy any further than this.

Rachel helped Jack up immediately and noticed all the people staring at the scene around her. It was odd to expect one of the students that often kept to herself 

“Are you threatening me, Rachel?” Vince asked, “You might just end up in the opposite position if you aren’t too careful. Don’t get arrogant.”

Silence fell as Rachel narrowed her eyes darkly, “I don’t have a concern being in the opposite position. Besides, I have a decently clean record on me. What do you have? Underage drinking, steroid use…”

Silence fell for a moment before Vince turned away from her, pointing a finger at her, “This isn’t over, Summers, Darby.”

Everyone immediately starting speaking with one another again. Jack got up, resting a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, you didn’t have to do that now.” Jack managed to belt out. Although, it was pretty awesome the way she stood up for herself and him like that.

“You got some spunk, Darby, I’m impressed.” Rachel gave him a slight smirk, “You’ve grown a backbone since we were in middle school.” 

Rachel Summers, a girl he had known since right before middle school started. She had kept to herself through middle and now high school. He considered her a friend at best, one of the few he actually had. She had been a little timid in middle school, but high school, she was one of those girls you just didn’t mess with. She was caring, kind, but outright unable to take anyone’s shit.

He...really had started admiring her as a person since high school started. She was an amazing person. Then, again, he wasn’t really into her in a romantic way. He was way into Sierra. He just respected Rachel as a whole. As a friend, and as a person.

“Ahhh, yeah thanks...you did too though.” Jack scratched the back of his head, embarrassed that she even brought that up, “You’re not the same person you were when I met you.”

“People move on and grow up in different ways, Jack.” Rachel sighed, knowing she had to come to terms with a lot in middle school, “But I’ve never seen you smartmouth Vince before, and I’m pretty impressed.” Her phone buzzed in her pocket but she would look at it whenever she was done talking to Jack, “I should…”

“Hey hold on, there was something I was going to talk to you about.” Jack sighed, still noticing a few people were staring at them and groaned softly to himself, “Rose, do you think she’s okay? It’s not like her to zone out like that in class. She’s like the perfect student, always getting good grades. I know you and she are best friends so I figured you might know what’s going on.”

Rachel shrugged, “I’m not entirely sure, honestly. I know her old village is by the pipeline they’re protesting currently. That could be the reason why she’s down. It’s nearing on her peoples’ stomping grounds according to the news. Plus some shady dude just took over the company her mom works at.”

Her grip on the bag tightens at the thought of Rose having to encounter him if things got bad. She knew it was a matter of time before any of them really had to face Megatron, but if he got suspicious about Rose, he might be able to find out who all of them were. After all, Rose, Sophia, and Scarlet and her were all best friends who hung out around each other. Their ties could really destroy their entire reputation and their families in the process.

She really wasn’t worried about her mom, but her sister and everyone else…

“Ah, yeah, that Micheal dude just renamed it to Megatron Industries. Weird name, right?” Jack sighed, “I won’t pry about it any further. I was just worried about her. I’ll leave you alone. You got something important to take care of it seems.” He gives her a small wave before rushing off.

Rachel groaned. This was all so damn complicated. There wasn’t any turning back now. She looked at her phone to see that it had been a text from Rose.

"Hey, the others are busy, but could you spare the two hours in between your meeting with Fowler and Optimus to help me? I’m kind of having a crisis. My mom is having issues at her company and I could use one of you to support me when I go over there."

A heavy sigh fell upon Rachel’s lips. Was she insane? What if she saw…

God, that gives her more reasons to go. She was thinking about letting her mom in, but she didn’t want to risk anything. At the very least, she was wondering why did Rose have to go there. 

Maybe she should call Fowler about this? It wouldn’t be best, but they still had no idea how they were going to handle Megatron’s new control on an American company. God forbid anyone would believe them with everything going on at the moment.

Rachel decided to text her back.

"Why do you need to go back to your mom’s work? What’s going on?"

About a minute later, Rose texted her back.

"I’m sorry, I’ll tell you later. It’s a long story. Can you please go with me? I’m pretty scared."

Rachel knew she had to after that, but what could be the problem?

"Sure I’ll do that. "

XXXX

The last few hours of school were pretty long, but Rachel had been highly concerned of her friend. Rose hadn’t been this distant or sad in a long time. And that meant she knew that there would be a reason why she needed her. 

Rachel wasn’t one to ignore a cry for help. She would have to make sure this didn’t last too long. The traffic alone was going to be a bit of a pain. It was a Thursday afternoon after all. 

Then again, Chicago traffic was always utter hell on earth. Getting from point A to point B might take twenty minutes over the ten.

And it’s fucking rush hour. Fan fucking tactic.

Well, let’s hope this doesn’t put a dent in her meeting. She hates to deal with Fowler’s temper again. As much as she wanted to prove her worth, she rather not get into a shouting match in front of Optimus. 

She almost rear-ended someone that turned into the lane at the last second. Annoyed, Rachel slammed on the brakes of her car before honking at the car. She was stopped at a light before hearing her phone buzzed. She ignores it, however, not wanting to risk the police getting on her tail. She wasn’t really in the mood for dealing with them at the moment.

So, after a bit of driving, in various traffic halts along the way, she was finally able to reach Rose’s house. She had already been standing outside when she pulled in. 

The redhead immediately got into the passenger side of Rachel’s car, shutting the door and putting her seatbelt on, “Hey, thanks for taking some time out of your busy schedule to help me.”

Rachel sighed, immediately shifting her car to reverse to back out of the driveway, “It’s not a problem, Rose. I’m your friend, after all. Now, what’s going on?”

“It’s about the pipeline, my mom’s company is gonna help its extension and you know what that means.” Rose began as Rachel had already connected the dots.

Why would Megatron want to help make a pipeline? 

It suddenly made sense why he took over the company to begin with. Businessmen had a lot of power in American society. Was he looking for an energy source? Did he know something none of them didn’t?

“I just didn’t expect this all to spiral. My mom isn’t happy about it, and she was gonna confront Megatron’s human form to see if he could reconsider. I need to be there, but I’m scared he might kill my mom if she gets too involved. She has no idea her new boss is actually an alien robot in disguise.” Rose explained.

“Damn, Fowler and I were gonna discuss that later. Look, we don’t have to go over there. We can wait til we talk to Fowler…”

“Rach, it can’t wait, my mom is doing this stuff today. How am I…”

“God damn it,” A heavy sigh escape Rachel’s lips, “If he does anything, I swear to god…”

“I know, Rachel, I know. I feel the same way.” Rose sighed, knowing Rachel wasn’t the best at keeping her anger in check. Considering what happened a couple of weeks back, she had to be angered too with what happened and the progress the Predacons are doing.

Rachel, all in all, was stubborn as all hell. It was given the situation that they decided but she didn’t want their names to get dragged into the dirt. They didn’t want to give up earlier and be seen as what they weren’t trying to be.

All of this was so damn complicated. 

“If anything, I’m glad you contacted me and the others and didn’t seek this out by yourself.” Rachel finally spoke after a few seconds of silence, “You’re not in this alone, and I’m pretty sure Megatron won’t back down but helping your mom is needed. If things get rough though, just allow me to take the blame for it.” He could get suspicious but Rachel was hoping he take them like normal kids.

He didn’t think there would be a reason if they saw him anyways. If she had been in the passenger seat, she probably would be clicking a pen to calm her nerves down a bit. 

“No, I can’t let you take the blame for it, Rachel…” Rose began while Rachel cut her off, sending her a smirk.

“I’m always the reckless one out of all of us. Don’t worry, they wouldn’t think someone who acts perfectly in school would do something. Not unless the school’s loner girl was around.” 

“You’re insane. You might get yourself exposed if it gets that bad.”

“Well, I can’t simply sit back and do nothing about it.” Rachel sighed heavily, “Damn, I really hate how complicated this is. You’re right.” She groaned, “There won’t be a goddamn thing that we can do.”

“Honestly, I doubt Megatron would even do anything to us in his robot form. He’d probably blackmail our family members if it got that bad.” Rose responded with a heavy sigh, “I’ve gotta do this though. I gotta make sure she’s safe.”

“You know, you totally get that nature from your mother.” Rachel sighed, knowing she’d probably do the same thing if she didn’t witness everything from before firsthand. Megatron was someone, one of the few, that had to instill fear into her body. The moment she saw him, she knew she wasn’t a match for her. The very thought of having to fight him at some point honestly terrified her. However, these sessions with Optimus was supposed to help that. 

At least, that was what she was hoping for.

They had finally arrived at the big building outside of Chicago. Getting out of the car, Rachel yawned before rushing over to catch up to Rose. Whose pace had quicken very quickly.

“Hey, hey, hold on a second, damn it.” Rachel groaned, rushing over to catch up with Rose. What exactly is she gonna do if she storms in? “At least let me catch up to you.”

Rose didn’t want to be too late. Her mom couldn’t lose this job or her life. If she got suspicious that could put her in a bad situation. She needed to move fast.

Rachel caught up to her friend, walking side by side in the building. There was someone at the front desk, sitting there. The room had been bright white. Red chairs were lined up to the right of them. White tiles shined below them.

The woman at the front desk adjusted her glasses, “Oh, Rose! You looked stressed.”

“Is mom still here?” Rose asked loudly as Rachel slammed her hand to her forehead. 

“She is, she was going to talk Michael, our new boss about the deal he just made with the pipeline. She didn’t look too happy about it, and I doubt you’re not either.” 

“No, I’m just worried about her is all and wanted to check up on her.” She looked over at Rachel who was checking her phone, “Oh, this is my friend, Rachel Summers.”

“Oh? It’s nice to meet you, Rachel.” The woman gave a small smile before Rachel sighed, throwing her phone in her pocket.

“What floor is your mom’s office on?” Rachel asked.

“Usually fifteen, but if she’s talking about Michael then…” Rose began, before snapping her fingers, “The top floor.”

“Oh lovely.” Rachel twirled a strand of her brown hair, “Tell me we at least don’t have to go up fifty flights of stairs.”

“You don’t think a big place like this has that many stories?” Rose retorted while Rachel just rolled her eyes.

“Let’s just go and get this over with.”

XXXX

The flight up the elevator had been presented with a long one. Rose and Rachel both stood in silence for most of it, but then Rose popped a question to the leader of the vigilantes of Chicago.

“Who were you texting?” She wondered.

“Oh? Um, Jack, he was worried about you and asked me if I had messaged you. I told him I was with you.” Rachel replied with a small shrug.

“Jack was worried about me?” 

“You’d be surprised how observant that guy is.” Rachel gave a small smile, “He asked me if I was doing alright too but I haven’t responded.” She waves her hand, realizing they were finally up on the top floor, “Oh, not the time to talk about boys.” She sighed before the elevator opened. 

It showed the same image of the human that they had seen before on TV and Rose’s mother standing a few feet away. She turned at them in horror, as if expecting someone else to come out of the elevator. 

Tension immediately sparked from the two girls that had stepped into the office, blinking. It was like their body was trying to stop them from walking away from any further. Destruction plagued their mind like a moth drawn to a flame that would eventually burn the both of them up. Fear embedded in their chests, trying to stop them from breathing. They were both freaked out by the presence of “Michael”, and only they knew who he truly was.

“I didn’t think I was expecting any visitors now.” ‘Michael’ gave a small smirk to the two females that had entered the room. His spiky, slicked back shoulder length purple hair glowed, and his red eyes danced with amusement, but with a glint of annoyance. Humans, more and more of them interfering, he sees. However, this was not a problem for the newly established businessman. Kids were easily able to be swayed, but he had also noticed the slight resemblance in the dark-skinned red-haired one.

“Ah, Miss Homma, this must be your daughter. You brought a friend with you, I see. I don’t recognize her.” He looked back at Rose and at Rachel in an instant, wondering if Rose had come here to try to plea to him, to beg not to have all those lives ended at the border. 

How annoying.

There’s no way now. Rachel realized it. She was tense. Both of them had been tense, but the moment those eyes meant hers, chills ran down her spine. She hadn’t felt much fear in a long time, she must admit. She describes herself as brave, but bravery didn’t feel like this.

“I know Rose’s name. Your mother must talk a lot about you, but who’s your friend? May I be introduced?”

Fuck, this was really bad. Rachel didn’t know the state her mother was in and yet, Rose was getting angry as well. She could feel it.

Rachel instead, spoke herself, speaking calmly despite the depths of her mind being paranoid, “I can introduce myself just fine, my name’s Rachel.” She gave him a bow of respect, not wanting this mech in disguise to slaughter her like an animal, “I’m a friend of Rose’s.”

It was no good, she didn’t even see Rose being equivalent to even speaking at this point. Rachel had to be the one to try to lead this on, and she wasn’t sure she herself could get her temper down.

“Rachel, that is a nice name. You must be helpful for coming with young Rose here. Why is it that you’ve come?” ‘Michael’ asked. Her fear was noted. No matter how many people he’s encountered, he could easily detect it, but this girl was seemingly much braver than the other one. Why are you scared, little ones? Are you hiding something?

Rachel swallowed the lump in her throat before Rose’s mom’s sudden scream cut off. In a matter of seconds, Rachel could feel Rose’s mom giving into anger and trying to do something she shouldn’t.

That’s when she came in to restrain her, “Don’t stop.” Rachel warned her, knowing that she had been upset. Hell, she was too. Megatron’s group had nearly screwed up some of her friends and judging on Rose’s mom’s antics, he wasn’t backing down from the pipeline, “You don’t need to get some illegal trouble.”

“Ah, now I see, that’s why then.” The human had some fast reflexes that were certainly not built up from any normal human, he assumed that she had learned some sort of fighting skills. It was apparently not too abnormal for humans to learn martial arts, but that move seemed like self-defense, “You came to make sure my colleague doesn’t do anything rash.” A chuckle fell out of his lips, “You know, Rachel, you’re smart to make sure this young lady didn’t make a small end to her entire career. I can respect your endeavors.” A lie, most of it was because ‘Michael’ or Megatron couldn’t hold down his bloodlust much longer. Patience, patience, he didn’t need to slaughter this identity, at least, not this early in the game, “I’m a businessman, and I’m sure I don’t need to get my hands dirty today by ending one of my college’s careers.” He clapped his hands, “Oh, I am sure appreciative of your loyalty, my dear. People tend to make the most careless mistakes when they’re faced with a scary decision in their own hometown. It’s only natural.”

She could tell Rose was faltering too, but Rachel shot her a look, motioning her to stop. They could not act here, not in the way their forms were. They didn’t need to be exposed. Not right now, not this early. Hiding was better. No one could get involved in their endeavors. 

“My apologies for them. You’re right.” She let go of Rose’s mom who dropped to her knees in an instant. It tore her apart that she couldn’t do a damn thing, but she needed to make sure nothing happened. It was her duty, not only as a leader in this war herself, but as a friend. Friends were supposed to stop friends from doing dumb things, “They are in distress. I have no idea why you are funding for the pipeline, but I assure you, protests and backlash will make you take a hit.”

Ah, this one was being formal until that last comment. A grin grew on his lips, “Ah, yes, I am sure.” Sarcasm dripped from his lips like honey, daring her to try to threaten the likes of him again. Try it, girl. See what happens. She was sassy, daring at that, “There will always be someone to support me in some shape or form. Businesses getting involved in something like this is normal. I wonder if it would do any damage.”

Rachel gladly took that as a challenge. A challenge that she would take into account that she would know what would happen. Sure, she was scared, but the others needed her to be brave. They didn’t need to see her in the state she was in beneath her facade.

After all, she knew how people were. Didn’t matter, eventually, all things fall when it came to business. Her mom knew about that and talked about it constantly.

Not to mention karma was a true bitch.

“Time will have to tell then.” She turned over to Rose’s mother who was standing there on her knees, “Let’s get moving.” She told her, offering a for her to reach. The older woman did so as she pulled her up. 

She still took her eyes back to ‘Michael’, making sure things didn’t go south the moment she took her eyes off of him. Whatever happens, she would take the blame for and she meant it like that. 

“Have a nice day, Mister CEO.” Rachel waved over them, backing up a few feet away before the elevator was placed before the three of the entered before descending down.

‘Michael’ noticed those girls wariness and even though Rachel had not shown her tense body, he could always sniff out fear. Fear was something he had inflicted on others for a long time even in his days of being Cryotek’s student. He used every ounce of it to bring Maximals and Predacons down, and eventually, they would be brought down. Brought down. He couldn’t kill any humans in this form. At least, not yet. He could not reveal his true intentions. Not when he needed to conquer a mudball of a planet and enhance energon in any way he could. 

Ultimately, this game was only beginning, and he would use every ounce of its weakness, to his own advantage.

XXXX

Following the descent down, Rachel was quick to send a text to Fowler to let him know she was on her way over. She knows her friend and her mom are gonna need some alone time and she’s done what she could do at this point.

Hatred had been building into her since that encounter. Anger and hate felt like the last block being built before it eventually brought down the entire tower own them. Rachel always hated feeling useless and by any means, her words to him, even if he hadn’t known who she was, was a declaration of war in her own accord. 

She may have to fight that mech, on her own one day, and that thought terrified her.

They were silent the entire time, but Rachel found her never really the type of person who wanted a thank you. Rose was one of her best friends, after all. She didn’t need a thank you. Rache dropped them off and immediately got home to rush over to get ready for her meeting after dropping some of her stuff off at the house. She had been quickly running, rushing over to hide in a very vacant part of town that had their treehouse, immediately throwing on her uniform for the Red Aura and rushing downwards, landing on her two feet. 

The rush over to the base had been a long time, but eventually, she arrived there, seeing Optimus in the distance at the door in his Beast Mode before he gave the human girl a wave.

“Aura, you didn’t have to rush,” Optimus told her, noticing how hard she was panting.

“Ah, it’s fine, I just got a little caught up in time.” She put her hands up in defense as Optimus raised his eyebrows at her.

“Is something the matter?” He did notice she was a little...shaken, yes, that was the right word. 

“Ah, I’ll tell you and Fowler when he gets here.” Aura scratched her cheek, “It’s been a long day.” She simply admitted before a yawn exhaled out of her body, covering her mouth with her hand.

Yeah, she was sure tired. It had been a long last few weeks if she was honest, but it was okay, she was fine, it wasn’t too bad. 

“I can tell, but don’t feel discouraged to talk to me about anything that’s bothering you. This entire thing isn’t easy to take in and I can tell the war has been stressing you out as of recent.” Rachel had been a bit more snippy than usual the last week, and he knew that he only knew Rachel also known as the Red Aura for only a couple of weeks now.

He was concern, but she was progressing well so far. Even though it was small, he was aware these things took time.

“Sure, sure, feelings and all.” Aura sighed, rubbing the back of her hand, “I’m fine, Primal, I assure you.” Can’t someone be tired? Geez. 

The suddenly steps of someone snapped Aura and Optimus both out of their thoughts, glancing at the African American male and the tall agent approaching them. 

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, alien.” Fowler’s words ranged with slight annoyance, “Let’s talk in your flying saucer, eh King Kong.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Much more excitement to come. I'm really excited to see Fowler's dynamic with the other Maximals as the time goes on. Thank you for reading and please leave a comment on your thoughts or kudo/bookmark if you like the story!


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